


Morrigan and the Celtic Guard

by CelticxPanda



Series: The Continuing Adventures of Morrigan and the Celtic Guard [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Animated), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Asexual Character, Bisexual Character, Demiromantic Character, Demisexual Character, Epic Friendship, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Lots and Lots of OCs, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Multi, OC-centric, diversity in sexuality and romantic orientation, homoromantic character, panromantic character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-04-25 00:32:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 48,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4939816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticxPanda/pseuds/CelticxPanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nobody asked Kolby if she wanted to be a super hero. And nobody asked her if she wanted to lead a team of young heroes. And nobody asked her if she wanted to be swept up in a life of adventure and danger. But then again, Kolby was fairly certain that the universe didn't ask anyone's permission (especially not her, the universe freaking hated her).</p><p>Edit: changed rating to better suit the new content.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Guarden Council pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> As promised, the main story of Morrigan and the Celtic Guard. While the majority of the story is in chronological order, several pieces have not been written yet for reasons having to deal with how my brain works when it comes to writing. If my brain allows, those parts missing will be written later. Thank you for reading. Have a nice day.

It was a quiet night. Then again, it usually was. 

Kolby soared over her city. The air was colder than usual, a front was probably coming through. She reminded herself to ask Gwydion to look up the forecast. Or maybe the autumn coolness was coming sooner than expected.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a voice coming through her comlink, “Your city is so boring, Morgan.”

“You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to, Dami,” She said in reply, a frown settling on her face. 

It had been several months since Kolby and Mark first met Dick and Damian. They had even spent the summer training under the more experienced heroes, but Damian’s frequent appearances in their town was starting to grate on her. He should be in Gotham, where he was needed because Gotham had dozens of crazed serial killers. 

“Yo guys, I think I need back up!” Gwydion shouted at them through their link.

Morrigan dived down, flying just above the buildings now, “Where are you, Gwydion?”

“Back behind the shopping center at 5th and Main! And hurry up!” 

“Give me 2 minutes!” Morrigan promised as she beat her wings faster, “Robin, Donn, what’s your ETA?”

“5 minutes at the most,” Donn informed them, “I’m at 3rd and Central but I can cut across the library’s parking lot and cut the time.”

“45 seconds,” Robin said, “It’d be faster if you had more buildings I could grapple from.”

“Quit complaining and just GET HERE!” Gwydion demanded, and it sounded like he was trying hard to not get beat up.

Morrigan neared her destination, the telescopic view from her visor giving her an idea of what they were dealing with. Gwydion and Robin were surrounded by a group of teenagers, maybe a dozen of them. Something was off about them, but Morrigan couldn’t tell from where she was. She dropped, landing as lightly on her feet as she could. It was still hard to do but those shock absorbing boots that Tim had given her over the summer make it a little easier. 

She stared down the few teenagers who had turned to face her and she saw what’s wrong with them. Their movements were too loose, like they weren’t fully in control of their bodies. Their eyes were blood shot and hazy, like those security guards at the Gotham arboretum after Poison Ivy got to them, and their pupils were blown so wide Kolby couldn’t even tell what color their eyes are. They wore surgical masks over their mouths. An attempt to hide their identity, perhaps. She caught one of the teens pulling out a knife and she retracted her wings. They were huge targets and she’d rather not get them stabbed. 

She ducked backwards, rolling away from the first fist as it flies towards her. She couldn’t even see what the teens were trying to steal, but she’d be happy to wrap them up for the police anyway. She heard the crack of a limb braking. She didn’t have to look to know it was Damian that did it. She needed to pay attention to the teens that are fighting her, but she couldn’t help glance over her shoulder when she heard Donn come bounding in. The slip earned her a cut on the arm. She hated getting hurt in battle. It meant trying to hide it from her mom or, if that failed, making up a lie to cover her tracks. 

She didn’t like using her powers on people, but she ended up throwing fire at the kids. One of them got burned, the shouting told her that much. Mostly she hoped she could scare them off, but they didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Gwydion threw one of his opponents at one of hers, knocking them both out. It looked like they were going to have to knock them all out. It wouldn’t be a problem, but there were so many of them and Morrgian still can’t figure out why they were acting the way they were.

She grabbed another teen, twisting his arm behind him and electrocuting him just enough to make him drop. There were only two or three of them left now, and they were deciding it probably wasn’t the best idea to stick around. Something fluttered out of one of the retreating teen’s pocket, and Morrigan bent down to pick it up as Robin and the others were rounding up the unconscious bodies and calling the police. It was a small packet, and it felt like it was full of sand or maybe powder. Emblazoned on the face of it is some kind of stylized flower that Morrigan can’t identify. 

“Whatcha got there?” Gwydion asked, coming up behind her.

“One of the suspects dropped this,” Morrigan said, holding up the packet for her friend to see, “I can’t figure out what that picture is of.”

“Looks like a flower,” Gwydion said, peering down at the image, which was difficult to see in the dark.

“Yeah, but what kind is the question.”

“I’m more interested in what’s in it,” Donn admitted, joining the others, “These guys looked like they were high as fuck off something. Maybe it’s what’s in that thing.”

“Give it here,” Robin demanded, holding out his hand expectantly. 

Morrigan, alerted by the sound of police sirens, stuffed the packet into her pocket instead. They’d analyze it back at the warehouse, but right now they had to deal with the police, who had gotten much more agreeable to work with after they caught Morrigan working with Batman that one time. Gwydion told them to have the teens drug tested, by any means they can come up with. 

 

Mark already had the packet ripped open by the time the lights are switched on. He poured a small amount on a microscope slide and the rest into various other containers for analysis. He had the packet’s image run through fifty different search engines before Kolby can change out of her uniform. Mark worked fast, he always did. Damian was actually being helpful for once, calling in Oracle to help cross reference with the Bat Computer. 

“It looks like our mystery flower is a Lily of the Valley,” Damian stated, “Which is highly poisonous.”

“But there’s nothing in the powder that’s chemically related to the lily,” Mark countered, “Looks like a bunch of psychoactive drugs, euphoriants and stimulants mostly. I can’t figure out what half this stuff is though.” 

“Give me a sample and we’ll run tests back at the Batcave,” Damian offered.

Kolby and Rachel sat off to the side. They wanted to help but this wasn’t their area of expertise. Kolby and Donn were field agents first and foremost. Mark was the one who did all the behind the scenes stuff. 

“So the drugs are euphoriants, which means whatever it is it feels good, which means it’s probably very addictive,” Kolby thought aloud, “I haven’t heard of any new drugs coming on the market. It must be brand spanking new if the police haven’t caught wind of it yet.”

“They’re stimulants too, meaning physical and what mental functions are still up and running are kicked into overdrive,” Rachel reminded, “But that’s a weird combination, isn’t it?”

“Not necessarily. Cocaine is both a euphoriant and a stimulant. Same with meth. This drug must be trying to create a similar effect.” 

“I’ve seen crack heads,” Damian interrupted, “They don’t move like that.”

“I didn’t say it was crack, Dami, I said it was something similar,” Kolby reminded gently, “But you should get back to Gotham, see if you guys can’t make any headway on that stuff. Two teams should be able to figure out what it is.”

Nodding in agreement, Damian took the offered sample from Mark and called up Dick, he needed to be picked up. Kolby would fly him if it didn’t take her ten hours going her top speed (they’d tested it over summer) and it didn’t kill her back. He promised to keep them updated and then he was gone.

 

“So it’s not inhaled?” Mark questioned quietly the next Monday. Damian had called Kolby on Sunday to let her know what he and the other Bat family members had discovered.

“No, apparently it’s meant to be ingested by mixing it with liquid,” Kolby explained, “It’s tasteless and odorless when mixed with pretty much any drink. And it’s all synthetic, which means someone’s got a big lab set up somewhere making this stuff.”

The three of them were walking down the hall, making their way towards their first period classes. It was busy in the hallway, and very loud, so Kolby felt safe discussing such things here, knowing most people wouldn’t hear them over their own conversations. 

“I bet they made it that way they did so it can be easily explained away,” Rachel said, “You can say it’s sweetener or something. No one is going to question you putting something in your tea.”

“Especially not around here,” Kolby said, shifting her viola case on her shoulder. 

She probably should have been watching where she was going. Despite the business of the hallway you didn’t often see people bump into each other. Kolby, despite her best efforts, rammed into someone moving the opposite way of pretty much everyone else in the hall. 

“Shit, sorry,” she muttered.

The person she ran into, a young woman who was probably a freshman, said nothing. She continued on as if nothing had happened, but not before Kolby caught a look at her face. Eyes bloodshot and pupils blown just like the teens a few nights before. Her face was flushed and she sounded like she was breathing heavily. Kolby watched her continue down the hallway, before noticing she had dropped something. 

Another packet, same as the last one, but with a different emblem on it. Mark quickly snatched it from Kolby’s hand, stuffing it into a petri dish and hiding it in a hidden pocket in his backpack. 

“We should tell someone about that,” Rachel murmured, “She looks like she’s having trouble.”

Mark nodded and left to find one of the principals or a teacher or something. The bell rang, and Kolby and Rachel rushed to their first periods. 

They met again at lunch, where Mark informed Rachel and Kolby that the girl got taken to the nurse’s office. She’d had some kind of fever and her blood pressure was through the roof so they sent her home.

“More than that,” Mark held up the packet from that morning, still confined in the petri dish but now with another packet with a different emblem on it, “It looks like more than one person is making this drug. But they must be connected somehow, because all of the symbols are flowers.” 

Kolby took a bite of her sandwich, leaning over to get a better look at the symbols. One was obviously a cherry blossom. She watched enough anime to know what one of those looked like. The other looked like a sun with a stem and leaf. A sunflower? Probably, but that was a stupid way of portraying one. Martin quickly stuffed the packets back into his bag.

“I’ll check them out and send the data to Dick, see if there’s any difference between the drugs.”

 

The team met once again later that evening at the warehouse. Mark had Dick on video conference and he had already sent the data to Gotham.

“So from what we can tell there’s very subtle differences between the drugs,” Mark explained, “The Sunflower variant had more stimulants and less euforiants than our Lily of the Valley variant. The other version has the same basic proportions, but it has something else in it too.”

“It looks like a possible synthesized version of Poison Ivy’s pollen,” Dick theorized, pointing out the possible spores.

“I thought Ivy didn’t sell her pollen,” Rachel said, “How could anyone synthesize it?”

“She doesn’t,” Dick agreed, “But people in the sex trafficking business around Gotham have been attempting to recreate it for years. It wouldn’t surprise me if this person got their hands on some.”

“Well, I suppose now the question is who’s making this stuff,” Kolby sighed, leaning against Mark’s chair, making it roll forward, “Is it the same person, or a group of people? It the group working together? Are there more variations of the drug out there? Shit, how did Bruce deal with cases like this all the damn time?”

“No idea,” Dick chuckled, “We’ll keep on running test over here on our end. I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“Thanks, Dick,” Mark said, cutting off the line. 

 

Weeks passed by without any new developments, and Kolby was beginning to grow impatient. No new attacks, no new dropped packets, nothing. Dick tracked down the synthesized pollen to some kink club in down town Gotham, who claimed to only use the pollen with paying customers who request it. Unfortunately, their policy was to destroy all records after a month, to protect their customer’s privacy. They willingly gave Dick their antidote, kept around in case of an accidental overdose. But they had no clue how the mixing with other drugs affected the pollen. A new antidote would likely have to be synthesized. 

Needless to say, they really weren’t any closer than they had been at the beginning. 

That was, until one night on patrol. Morrigan noticed an unusually large group of people in the park behind the high school. She dove down, calling it in to Donn and Gwydion. It was a group of young men, a costumed young woman standing behind them. The men surrounded a pair of teenagers, one standing protectively in front of the other.

Morrigan landed just in front of the encircling men. Their eyes were the same as the drugged up teens from the first encounter. Their leader (at least Morrigan assumed she was their leader, she was the only one who didn’t seem hopped up on drugs) frowned at the new development.

“And who do you think you are, interrupting the Garden Council’s justice?” she demanded, tightening her grip on her weapon. 

She was dressed entirely in pink and white, a masquerade mask covered her eyes in pale pink blossoms. She wore a yukata, which Morrigan would think odd, but she had spent the whole summer in Gotham. Nothing was odd to her anymore. 

“Justice for what?” Morrigan asked, “And who the hell is the Garden Council?”

“The Garden Council is who will soon be ruling this town,” the woman explained vaguely, “As for my grievance against these two, let’s just say I don’t like being dumped for some twink.”

“I don’t even know who you are!” the larger of the two boys in danger shouted.

“An even greater crime,” the pink woman hissed, “You may call me Cherry Blossom, one of the Garden Council’s finest members.”

“You’re the ones who’ve been making the drugs, haven’t you?” Morrigan questioned. She was stalling, everyone knew it. But she needed Donn and Gwydion there before she started a fight.

“Perhaps,” Cherry Blossom said, “But there are a lot of drugs out there. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“The drugs in the packets with the flower symbols on them!” Morrigan shouted, “Yours has the synthetic pollen in it from Poison Ivy! What are you making it for?”

“What else would a girl make mind controlling drugs for?” Cherry Blossom sneered, “For world domination of course.”

Donn and Gwydion finally arrived just in time to hear Cherry Blossom’s confession. Cherry Blossom’s eyes narrowed behind her mask. She snapped her whip-like weapon.

“Boys, do your job.”

The drugged teens dived towards the three heroes and the young men behind them. The larger boy shoved his boyfriend, at least Morrigan assumed they were dating (that seemed to be Cherry’s issue at least), behind him.

“Get up the tree and don’t come down until I tell you it’s safe.”

“But Luke…” the smaller boy didn’t get to voice his concerns.

“No buts, Toby! Get up there!”

“How cute, you’re concerned about him,” Cherry taunted, “Too bad it’ll never be safe for him!”

She lashed out with her weapon, which Morrigan realized had a blade at the end of it. It hit its mark, striking Luke across the arm.

But nothing happened.

No cut, no blood, not even a yelp of pain. Luke just growled and charged towards the mooks, rugby tackling one to the ground. 

“He’s a fucking metahuman!” Morrigan hissed to Donn and Gwydion, ducking under a druggie and flipping him over her shoulder.

“Christ, what are the odds?” Donn laughed breathlessly, punching another goon in the nose. 

Gwydion turned and grabbed one of the goons who was making his way to the tree Toby had climbed, pulling him back and elbowing him in the gut. But others made it past them, and started climbing the tree, only to fall from it moments later. Morrigan would question it, but she was too busy trying to get to Cherry Blossom. Cherry scowled, lashing out with her flail. Morrigan barely dodged it, grabbing at the whip before Cherry could pull it back. Her electricity moved quickly along the length, shocking the young woman on the other end. She shrieked and released the whip, stumbling.

“Luke!”

Luke didn’t need any more instruction. He tackled her to the ground, pinning her with his knee. Morrigan rushed over and snatched Cherry’s mask off her face. Dark eyes glared up at the two and glossed lips twisted into a scowl. Luke’s tense shoulders dropped in shock.

“Sable?” the confusion and betrayal was evident in his voice.

Morrigan couldn’t place where she knew the girl’s face, but she knew it somehow. She didn’t have the chance to figure it out, as “Sable” hissed and one of her minions tackled both Luke and Morrigan. She ran, the goons still standing following after her. 

Donn climbed up the tree Toby had hidden in, amazed at what she found. Toby had manipulated the plant’s branches to surround him in a protecting cocoon. She called his name softly, not wanting to meet the same fate as the unconscious assailants below the tree. The branches retracted slowly, revealing Toby’s frightened brown eyes.

“It’s okay, Toby,” Donn assured, “She’s gone now.”

“Who the fuck was that?” Morrigan asked Luke, who fussed over Toby from the moment the smaller teen had left the tree.

“Sable Asakura,” Luke sighed angrily, “I broke up with her a few months ago. And then I started dating Toby. I guess she wasn’t very happy about it.” 

“We have more questions for you,” Morrigan told him, “But we probably shouldn’t talk about it here.”

 

Getting Toby and Luke back to the warehouse without them knowing how they got there was a bit difficult. Donn and Gwydion ended up driving the boys back on the back of their motorbikes. Kolby flew ahead, making sure the space was ready for guests. They didn’t have them often, and usually it was just Dick or Damian (sometimes both). She pulled extra chairs up to the small table they used on those days they started early enough to grab Chinese takeout before starting patrol. She pulled out the one-cup coffee machine thing Mark had gotten on sale at Target and all the different teas and coffees they had. Kolby hardly ever used it, but she figured it’d probably be nice to offer a cup of tea to the poor traumatized kids. 

Her hood was off when they get there, but her visor is still on. She couldn’t trust that the kids will keep their identities a secret just yet. They sat next to each other, so close they could have been joined at the hip. When Morrigan offered them a cup, Toby asked for a hot chocolate but Luke declined. Looked like he didn’t quite trust them either. 

“Alright then, let’s get down to business,” Kolby stated, sliding into her seat facing Luke and Toby, “Before you broke up with Cherry Blossom or Sable or whatever the fuck her name is, did she ever mention this ‘garden council’ or the drugs?”

“No,” Luke shook his head, “I mean, she mentioned gardening and trying to find just the right fertilizer. I guess she might have been talking in code.”

“Why did you brake up with her, if you don’t mind me asking?” Donn questioned, “I mean, she seems like such a nice girl.”

Luke chuckled a little at the sarcasm before falling serious again, “I mean, things were fine and dandy at first. But then she got really controlling and manipulative. She wanted to isolate me from pretty much everyone else while surrounding herself with other people. I couldn’t take it. So I broke it off. She…wasn’t happy.”

“Her associates,” Gwydion spoke next, “Would you know who any of the others on the Council could be?”

“She didn’t have a lot of girl friends,” Luke admitted with a frown, “They don’t ‘do anything for her.’ I mean, I’m all for a girl being free with her sexuality, but not when she’s dating someone who’s not all into the open relationship thing. Anyway, I only know of her hanging out with four other girls: Taylor, Blair, Amara and Kiki. If Sable is on this ‘garden council’ then those girls probably are too.”

 

“So I did some research,” Mark said quietly, sliding in next to Kolby as she and Rachel sat in the school cafeteria the next day, “There are like twenty Taylor’s in this school, but only one of them is known to associate with Sable Asakura. Taylor Cornfield.”

“The student council treasurer?” Rachel hissed, leaning in. 

“Her mom is also one of the richest women in the state.”

The trio jumped, turning to see Luke and Toby standing over them. Luke grinned wickedly at them, apparently pleased that he scared them. Toby waved shyly, bidding them good morning.

“How?”

“You’re not subtle,” Luke said with a shrug, “Plus, that one uses photos of you guys as the screen saver on those huge computers you’ve got.”

Kolby glared at Mark, who shrugged helplessly at her. Luke and Toby sat at the table, forcing themselves between Kolby and Mark. 

“What are you doing?” Kolby whispered, looking about to make sure no one is paying attention to them.

“We want to help!” Luke insisted, “We’ve got powers too, and I know Sable way better than you do. Plus, Toby really likes superheroes.”

“Do you know Superman?” 

“No,” Kolby denied plainly, not taking her eyes off Luke, “You got info? Talk.”

“So I was thinking over the weekend, yeah? Trying to remember all the stuff from before me and Sable broke up, yeah? I think I know the thing that connected all of them.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“All their parents are super fucking rich, like millionaires,” Luke informed them, “Sable’s dad owns banks. Taylor Cornfield? Her mom is a lawyer for LexCorp. Kiki Chen’s dad is a stock broker and he’s got shares in Wayne Enterprises, LexCorp, Apple, Microsoft, and Queen Industries. Blair Thomas’ dad directs million dollar blockbuster movies and Amara Bradley’s mom is a fashion designer. These girls are fucking loaded.”

“So why turn to crime?” Rachel asked, glancing over her shoulder quickly.

“All of them are megalomaniacs,” Toby offered, “Everything has to go their way. I was in a group project with Kiki one time. If we didn’t do things the way she wanted, she flipped out. They want what every megalomaniac wants: control.”

“She did mention world domination,” Mark muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. 

The bell rang. Kolby stood quickly and informed their new friends to meet them after school. If they wanted to be superheroes, they had a lot of work to do. 

 

Luke and Toby met Kolby and the others in the parking lot in the back of the school. 

“Get in,” Kolby jerked her head at her car, an old, red Subaru her dad used to drive.

Luke and Toby were teammates now, so they get to see the way to the warehouse. They stared out the windows, and Kolby could see the confusion on their faces in her rearview mirror as they approached. Mark scooted by on his motorbike, opening the garage’s door and closing it just as Kolby’s car made it through. 

“Don’t bother getting comfortable,” Kolby said as they made their way into the warehouse proper, “There are changing rooms over there. Get into something you don’t mind sweating in. We’re going to figure out everything you two can do and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get to wear a mask.”

 

Turned out not only is Luke invulnerable, he’s got super strength too. Give him flight and he could give Superman a run for his money. Toby could manipulate plants, but he needed something to start from, so Mark just ran out to Home Depot and bought tons of random seed packets for him. Luke’s fighting had no finesse, he preferred to just tackle people to the ground. Kolby would have to work with him on that. Toby didn’t seem like he could put up much of a fight, but he had a knack for redirecting attacks and using his opponent’s momentum against them. The only probably was he just couldn’t take a hit.

They took a break, Luke and Toby both breathing heavily. Toby jumped at the sound of his phone ringing. He grabbed it from the chair he’d set it on earlier. A moment later he gasped and dropped it. 

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked urgently, rushing over to his boyfriend.

Morrigan bent down to pick up the phone. Someone had sent Toby a picture. A picture of two young women in a bedroom.

“They found out where we live!” Toby sobbed, “They’re gonna take her.”

“Who? Who are these girls?” Morrigan demanded, kneeling down and showing the photo to Toby again.

“That’s my sister Tabitha and her friend Sam. They’re gonna kidnap them I know it!”

Morrigan frowned, this was way too forward of these girls. They were getting bold.

“You two go grab masks,” she told them, “We’re gonna go save your sister, Toby.”

 

“So what are we calling them?” Donn asked through the comlink, “We can’t just call them by their real names.”

“You can call me Cernunnos,” Toby said, clutching onto Mark as they sped down the street.

“We did some research before we approached you,” Luke chuckled, “He’s Cernunnos and I’m Lugh.”

Kolby chuckled, these kids weren’t even in uniform and they were already integrating themselves into the team. It was probably a good thing. She and Mark couldn’t stick around forever. She was already sending in college applications, and she knew Mark had been accepted into St. Andrew’s College in Star City.

“There they are!” Toby shouted, drawing Kolby’s attention to the ground below. 

Just as before, their enemy was surrounded by goons. Two goons carried Tabitha and Sam over their shoulders. The redhead (Kolby assumed this was Tabitha) pounded on the man’s back and kicked desperately. The blonde bit at her assailant, but Kolby couldn’t tell if she actually landed a blow. 

Kolby dove, landing on one goon’s shoulders and pushing him down into the dirt below. Lugh jumped off the motorbike and tackled another goon before Donn could even stop the vehicle. Cernunnos tossed out a seed, vines sprouting up from the ground and grabbing the legs of the goons who carried Tabitha and Sam. 

“You again?” Sable shrieked, “How dare you interfere again!”

“How dare you attack innocent people because you were pissed off that someone broke up with your bitch ass!” Morrigan shouted back, rushing towards Sable.

She slid along the wet grass, kicking Sable’s legs out from underneath her. They kicked and scratched at each other and Kolby struggled to keep her face out of reach of the other girl. If Sable tried to scratch at her eyes, she’d likely knock her visor off and reveal her identity.

Cernunnos and Lugh freed Tabitha and Sam. Tabitha turned to her brother, his face covered by a mask.

“Toby?” she whispered, staring at him.

“Yeah, it’s me. Don’t worry, we’re gonna kick their asses.”

“I know you are, baby brother.”

“I’m only three minutes younger than you!”

Sam fought back against those who tried to abduct her and her best friend. She punched and kicked and bit and scratched. And then she did something no one expected her to do. 

She grabbed her own shadow and created a whip from it, lashing out at the particular goon that had snatched up Tabitha. 

“How many metas are in this town?!” Donn yelled just before taking a fist to the cheek.

“Way too fucking many,” Sable hissed, drawing her knee up and striking Kolby in the gut with it.

“Are you having issues, Cherry Blossom?”

The heroes and Sable looked up. On top of the neighboring house, were four masked young women. 

“Are you the Garden Council?” Lugh asked with a growl, fists clenching at his side.

“Indeed,” the blonde in white and pale blue informed him, “I am Lily of the Valley. You’ve met Cherry Blossom.”

Sable frowned heavily.

The dark skinned woman in white and yellow spoke next, “I am Sunflower. My partner is Morning Glory. And our illustrious leader is Rose.”

“Of course the leader is a fucking rose,” Gwydion muttered to himself, rolling his eyes.

“Cherry, dear, I know you need justice to be dealt to your former favorite,” Rose purred and it made Kolby feel like retching, “But you’re embarrassing yourself. Let us leave the vengeance until the Day of Blooming.”

“Day of Blooming? What the fuck is that?” Sam shouted.

“You’ll see soon, I assure you,” Rose promised, “But for now, we shall leave. Cherry!”

Kolby grunted as Sable elbowed her in the side, allowing her to escape. She joined her fellows atop the roof and glared down at Morrigan and her comrades.

“Until then, my dears,” Rose smiled sweetly, “I’m afraid we must be off. There is much to do before our garden can bloom.”

“Oh, no worries,” Kolby shot back, “Whenever your ready, the Celtic Guard will be there to pull your precious flowers like the weeds they are.”

And with that, the Garden Council was gone. Kolby’s wings flexed and flared, black feathers shimmering blue in the moonlight. She had hoped her little town (which wasn’t really that little, but it had always felt so small compared to Gotham) would be able to avoid real villains. She turned to her team, who set her with determined gazes. 

“Looks like we’ve got a war coming,” she said.

“They you’re gonna need soldiers, right?” Sam stepped forward, “Let me help.”

 

Kolby, Rachel, and Mark stood looking at their protégés. Now they looked like heroes. Lugh, with his roaring red dragon that covered his chest like the armor of a knight. Cernunnos, with his mask of leaves that gave him the appearance of a woodland prince. And finally Scathatch, who looked like a shadow herself in her black cloak. The Guard had their soldiers to face the Garden Council’s army.

They were ready for war.


	2. The Guarden Council part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a lot of chapters of this story already written. So until that backlog has been exhausted, I will probably be updating twice a week: Monday and then Thursday or Friday. I may post chapters directly here, or I will be adding to the series with small side stories that, while important to the development of the characters and their relationships, do no directly affect the plot. I'll post links to short stories that take place before chapters in the authors notes. For now, please enjoy this second chapter.

The Garden Council had been freakishly quiet the past few days. Kolby assumed they’d be feeling bold after their encounter, but nothing had happened. The Guard had spent the past few days trying to find where the Council had been producing the drugs with little success. 

“You’ve known about this stuff for months and you still haven’t found out where they’re making it?” Damian scoffed over video chat one evening.

“Well excuse me for not being fucking Batman!” Kolby shot back. “World’s greatest detectives we are not, give us a break.”

“What will you do when you find their lab anyway?” Damian asked. “Destroy it?”

“Sabotage isn’t out of the question,” Kolby sighed as she leaned back in her chair and rubbed at her eyes. “Mostly we just want to know where it is so we can point the police in the right direction should arrests actually happen.”

“I do hope you’re planning on stopping these villains before their ‘day of blooming,’” he said.

“That’s the plan,” Kolby agreed.

Though it really wasn’t much of plan at all. They were missing so much information. Where were they making drugs? How were they being distributed? When was the Day of Blooming? What was the Day of Blooming?

Kolby sighed once more and buried her face in her hands. This wasn’t what she signed up for. 

“Hey, Kolby.” Kolby looked up to see Toby coming down from the loft above where Mark had his computer set up. “Mark’s got something that looks interesting.”

“I’ll talk to you later, Dami. Go kick butt.”

“I always do.”

She shut off the chat and followed Toby up the stairs. Mark had a map of the city up, several points illuminated in blue with one singular point colored red. Mark was staring hard at the screen, Rachel and Sam over his shoulders.

“So what’s all this?” Kolby asked. Sam moved aside so she could get a closer look.

“These are all water treatment plants,” Mark told them, “The ones in blue are active.”

“That’s a lot of plants for a city our size,” Rachel observed.

“Five’s a bit excessive, yeah, but that’s not what I was getting at,” Mark said. “That one in red was built two years ago, but it was never activated. However, a few months back, residents around it started complaining about the noise. There was never an official investigation, but why would an inactive plant be making noise?”

Kolby’s eyes widened in realization. “Because someone’s using it for something else!”

“Bingo, we’ve got a winner,” Mark joked, “But there’s one other thing. Look who’s got a birthday at the end of this month.”

He pulled up a facebook page, highlighting a particular someone’s birthday.

“Taylor Cornfield,” Kolby hissed.

“Aka Rose of the Garden Council,” Sam concluded.

“So you’re thinking her birthday is the Day of Blooming?” Kolby asked, turning her sights to Mark instead of his screen.

“I’m thinking so,” he nodded. “I can’t be for sure, but she does have an event on that day that she’s calling a ‘garden party.’”

“I swear, she’s just taunting us now,” Kolby scowled.

Suddenly, her cellphone started ringing, which was weird because no one ever called her this late. She dug it out of her pant pocket and saw Damian’s name on the screen. She excused herself to answer it.

“Dami, you literally just got done talking to me, what’s wrong?”

“It’s father,” Damian told her. “He’s back. You need to come.”

“What? Dami, I can’t just drop everything and come meet you in Gotham!” Kolby argued. “It takes me ten hours to fly there on my own, how do you expect me to get there?”

“You have a long weekend this weekend, yes?”

“Well, yeah but I don’t see…”

“Come then,” he insisted. “I’ll send the plane. Bring Claymore if you must. I want father to meet you.”

Kolby groaned, running her hand through her hair, “I’ll see what I can do.”

 

Telling her parents that the Waynes wanted her to visited worked surprisingly well, especially when she told them that Damian was sending the private jet for them. She was lucky her parents never questioned why one of the most powerful families in the country had taken such a sudden interest in her, because she’d have no idea what to say to them.

Damian was waiting for her when she and Mark arrived at the manor. This was new. They’d never been at the manor before. Dick and Damian had been working out of the penthouse above Wayne towers, and that’s where Kolby and Mark had stayed when they had spent the summer in Gotham. 

She was out of the car the moment Alfred opened the door. She rushed to Damian’s side, pulling him into a tight hug the moment he was within arm’s reach. She held him tight, knowing something was wrong when he actually hugged her back, his small hands clenching in the fabric of her hoodie.

“He’s really back,” it was more a statement then a question but Damian nodded anyway. 

She heard the front door of the manor open. She looked up to see an imposing man coming down the front stairs to meet them, Dick not far behind him. Damian quickly released Kolby and turned to face the men. Kolby, however, wasn’t about to let the child go and kept a soft but firm grip on Damian’s shoulders. Mark was standing beside them now, his stance stiff and defensive. 

The man stopped in front of them, his gaze giving each of them a once over before he extended his hand to Kolby.

“So you’re the one Damian’s been waiting for all day.” His smile was friendly but his body language said something else entirely. “I’m Bruce Wayne.”

Kolby took the man’s hand and shook it once. “Kolby Morgan.”

Bruce’s grip was far too tight for Kolby’s liking. So she shocked him, just enough that he knew she’d done it. His fake smile turned into an expression of surprise before a much more genuine smile graced his handsome face.

“I’m Mark Claymore,” Mark interrupted the contest of wills. Bruce shifted his attention from the young woman who held onto his son and shook Mark’s hand, his grip much lighter. 

“Why don’t we go inside and I’ll brew up some tea,” Alfred suggested. holding Mark and Kolby’s luggage in his hands.

“That’s a great idea, Alfred,” Bruce agreed. “Shall we?”

He gestured for the younger heroes to go in front of him. Kolby moved first, one hand still on Damian’s shoulder as she went. She set Bruce with a stare as she passed him, which he met evenly. 

This was not going to be fun.

 

“I need you and Scathatch to investigate that lead Mark had on the water treatment plant,” Kolby spoke to Rachel over the phone later that evening. “Don’t do anything. Just observe, take a look around. I want to make sure that we’re right before we actually do anything drastic.”

Tea had gone horribly, as had dinner. Dick had done all the talking and Kolby still didn’t know how she felt about Bruce. Dick’s openness and friendly attitude was genuine and that made him easy to work with. Bruce was all secrets and fake smiles and judgmental eyes. It was like everything she did was being locked away for later so he could psychoanalyze her. 

She heard her door open and she turned to see Damian standing in the partially open doorway.

“Keep me posted, alright? I gotta go.”

She hung up the phone and motioned for Damian to come in. She sat on her bed and Damian soon joined her. 

“Trapped in time, huh?” Kolby muttered, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. “Sounds like something you’d read in a comic book.”

Damian hummed noncommittally. His legs swung back and forth slowly and Kolby had never seen him look more like a child. 

“So what happens now?” she asked. “You’ve worked with Dick so long I don’t think I could see you working with anyone else.”

“Father wants to go back to being Batman,” Damian informed her. “Richard will return to being Nightwing.”

Kolby sighed heavily, flopping back onto her bed.

“I was afraid of that.”

Damian lay back as well, turning to his side to look at the teenage hero.

“You dislike father,” he observed.

“He doesn’t like me either,” Kolby said. “He doesn’t trust me. He’s already trying to figure out a way to take me down ‘just in case.’ I can see it in his eyes and Mark felt it when they shook hands. How does someone live with that much distrust in them?”

Damian scooted closer to Kolby, who reached out and wrapped an arm around him in a half hug.

“Grandfather taught me that trust is for the weak.”

“You’re grandfather is also the leader of a massive organization of assassins and has tried to kill you more than once since you became Robin,” Kolby pointed out. “I wouldn’t exactly follow his advice.”

“Fair enough.”

“I trust you,” Kolby said. “I trust Dick. I trust Mark and Rachel and Toby and Sam and Luke. Trust is important in our line of work because if you can’t trust your comrades, your friends, then how can you stand to risk your life? The only reason I can is because I know there’s going to be someone there to catch me and make sure I make it out of there alive.”

They were quiet for a long time. Damian moved even closer, laying his head on her shoulder. He finally spoke up again, his voice soft, like he was telling her some kind of secret.

“I trust you, too.”

Kolby smiled, squeezing him briefly and placing a quick kiss to his forehead.

“Good. I’m glad.”

 

“So what’s gonna happen?” Toby asked.

“Bruce has pledged his continued support of the Celtic Guard,” Kolby informed her team. “He will be taking over again as Batman, but our partnership with them has not changed otherwise.”

The team seemed satisfied enough with that answer. Luke relaxed in his spot on the old couch Mark had picked up one day at a flea market, Toby cuddling closer. Sam had brought Tabitha in that night, which was becoming a frequent occurrence as of late. Not that Kolby minded, Tabitha was great with computers and when she was here, it meant they had someone holding down the fort and monitoring everything on the computers.

“Now, what did you and Sam find at the plant?” Kolby asked Rachel.

“That’s definitely where the Garden Council has been making their drugs,” Rachel said. “There’s chemistry stuff everywhere and we managed to find their database. It lists all the different incarnations of the drugs and their affects on people and everything. We managed to get it on an external hard drive and brought it back.”

“There weren’t any actual drugs there, though,” Sam continued, “It’s like they’ve already moved it all out in preparation for something.”

“The Day of Blooming,” Kolby reasoned. “They’re already getting ready for it.”

“We still don’t know what that even is,” Luke complained. 

“Whatever it is, it’s happening soon,” Tabitha said. “There’s no way they can hide all those drugs for very long.”

 

Kolby glanced around her physics class. Someone was missing. Someone important.

Blair Thomas wasn’t there.

What day was it? Kolby checked her phone under the table. It was the day before Taylor Cornfield’s birthday and ‘garden party.’ She looked around once more, observing the other students in the room. Was it just her, or did more of them look like they were under the influence of the Council’s drugs? 

The intercom crackled to life and a young voice floated from the old speakers.

“Dear students of Scott High School, welcome to the Day of Blooming.”

Kolby leapt from her chair at the same time that the students under the influence of the Council’s drugs stood. Kolby grabbed her bag and ducked out of the room, running down the hallways towards the student parking lot. She met Mark and Rachel along the way.

“It’s starting,” Rachel panted as they ran. “The kids they’ve gotten to, they’re all acting weirder than normal. Almost like they’ve been preprogramed for this.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Mark huffed. “But where are the Garden Council?”

“They’ve moved all their drugs from their lab, which means they’re gonna use them for something,” Kolby remembered, ignoring the security guard that yelled at them as the burst out the school’s back door. 

“But what are they gonna do with it?” Rachel asked, waving at Luke and the others who were already climbing into Luke’s truck.

Kolby thought hard as she drove through the city as fast as she felt safe going. The drug wasn’t inhaled, so they couldn’t just release it into the air. Besides, they’d run the risk of inhaling it themselves if they did that. It was ingested, usually through drinks.

“The water towers!”

“What?” Mark nearly tripped on his way out of her car.

“They’re gonna put the drugs in the water towers!” Kolby shouted, running towards the changing rooms.

 

“There’s three water towers,” Mark explained. “So we’re splitting up into teams of two and Tabitha will stay here and monitor the situation. Me and Lugh will take the eastern most water tower. Cernunnos and Donn will go to the north. Scathatch and Morrigan are going south. Tabby has already called in the Bat family, but they won’t be here for a while so do what you can. Hopefully we can stop them before the water gets contaminated. Let’s GO!”

 

“No one has accessed the water towers yet, but there are large pickup trucks with oil drums in the back heading towards each of them,” Tabby told them through the comlinks as the team made their way through the city.

“Do we have an ETA on Batman and Robin yet?” Kolby asked. 

“Not yet, but Damian said that help is on the way in the mean time.”

“What kind of help?”

“My kind of help!”

Kolby looked up to see fucking SUPERMAN flying in. Kolby gaped as he flew lower to match her altitude and speed.

“Holy fucking SHIT!”

“What? What’s going on?” five different voices yelled in her ear.

“Robin sent SUPERMAN!”

“What do you need me to do?” he asked.

Kolby shook her head to clear way the shock. “I need you to handle any one who gets between us and the Garden Council. There’s no way these girls are doing this without guards of some kind. You handle them, we’ll handle the girls.”

Superman nodded and accelerated, flying off in front of Kolby who beat her wings like mad to keep up. She was right, the area surrounding the base of the water tower was crawling with teenagers and young adults. All of them looked drugged out of their minds. 

Scathatch ducked through their shadows, using the mass of people and shadows to her advantage. The water tower was going to be more difficult. It wasn’t exactly made to be climbed or messed with. She’d have to do it the hard way.

Superman came barreling into the crowd, catching Scathatch’s attention. She’s only a short way up the ladder when she heard Morrigan call out to her. She reached out with one hand and grabbed onto Morrigan as she passed by. This might not have been the best idea as Morrigan now had to work twice as hard to fly to the top of the water tower.

“Guys, you’ll never guess what’s happened!” Cernnunos said through the comlink.

“What? What’s going on?” Morrigan demanded.

“The Flash is here! He’s just speeding through and knocking everyone out!”

“Wish we had some help like that over here!” Lugh shouted.

“Superman! We’ve got it handled here, go help Lugh and Gwydion!” Morrigan called down as they were reaching the top. 

She didn’t bother to make sure he’d done as she asked, because Rose and Lily of the Valley were waiting for them at the top. 

“Welcome to the Day of Blooming,” Rose greeted them. “So glad you could make it.”

“Cut the pleasantries, Rose. We’re here to make sure your precious garden party doesn’t fucking happen!” Scathatch shouted. 

“You’re welcome to try,” Rose offered, pulling an ornate revolver from behind her back. 

A wall of ice blocked the first shot, but it didn’t stop Lily from jumping over it and stabbing at Scathatch with her dagger. The blonde heroine barely dodged backwards, sliding a bit on the tower’s uneven surface. Morrigan abandoned her safe position behind her wall of ice to help her friend, sliding along the ground to kick Lily’s legs out from underneath her.

“The fuck are you even doing this for, Blair?” Morrigan demanded. “Why risk everything on this? Even if we couldn’t stop you, the Justice League would catch on to you sooner or later.”

“You seem to think we wouldn’t get the Justice League under our control,” Blair sneered. 

“I doubt your drug works quite as well as you think on Kryptonians and Martians.”

“Don’t know until you try!”

Morrigan punched her. Hard. In her pretty little face she was so damn proud of. Her mask broke and now there was no arguing who ‘Lily of the Valley’ was. She scowled at Morrigan, thrusting forward with her knife and nicking Kolby in the cheek. Scathatch moved to step on Blair’s shadow, knowing that will stop her from moving. Blair twitched and grunted, trying to move but found herself frozen in place. Morrigan knew that only worked as long as Scathatch didn’t lift her foot from Blair’s shadow, so she created a wall of ice to protect the younger girl from Taylor’s bullets. 

“Morrigan,” Damian’s voice finally came in over the comlink, “we’re two minutes out, where do you need us?”

“Scathatch is tied up, so one of you with me would be nice,” Kolby told him.

“You got it.”

Morrigan rolled out of the way of another one of Taylor’s bullets. This was getting ridiculous! She threw daggers of ice at her opponent only to have them dodged. She had to get closer, but couldn’t with the barrel of the gun pointed at her. 

The sound of a jet filled her ears and then suddenly Damian is landing on Taylor’s shoulders and knocking her down. The jet flew off, Bruce going to one of the other water towers. 

“You can’t do anything without us, can you?” Damian asked sarcastically.

“Nice to see you, too, Robin.”

Taylor rushed to her feet, pointing her gun right at Damain’s head. “I. Will not. Be disrespected!”

Morrigan moved faster than she thought possible, throwing out her hand and sending a slew of lightning at Taylor. Her storm hit it’s mark and Taylor shrieked, dropping her gun and falling to the floor. Kolby stalked forward, kicking the gun off the water tower. She bent down and grabbed Taylor by the collar of her shirt, ripping her mask from her face.

“You will not fucking touch him!” she hissed. “You’ve contaminated enough people, but you won’t touch him with your filthy hands.”

One punch and Taylor was out.

 

“Thanks for your help,” Kolby said, taking Superman’s hand in hers and giving it a firm shake.

“Yeah, you lot can come and help us out anytime you want!” Mark told Flash as the two high fived. 

“Let’s hope they won’t have to,” Rachel muttered, nursing a bruised rib. 

The group turned at the sound of struggling. The Garden Council was being stuffed into a police van. Morrigan grinned, the need for one last insult too great for her to ignore.

“Hey, Taylor,” she called, “Happy birthday.”

The blonde girl flew into a rage, managing to out maneuver the police officer who was putting her into the van only to be caught by two other officers closer to the Guard and their allies. She screams at them, her southern accent thicker than usual.

“You think this is the end? My mama’s a lawyer. There’s no way we’re going to jail! And when we’re done making a fool of you in court, we’re gonna come for ya. And we’re gonna kill ya!”

“What’s that saying, Robin?” Morrigan asked. “Everything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law?”

“That’s the one.”

Taylor’s eyes widened in fear as she realized her mistake. 

“Might want to have your mother cancel that facebook event for you.”


	3. The Long Game part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place after the side story You Know What They Say About Assuming [link here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4985737). While it's not completely necessary to read that to understand the plot progression here, it does explain the change in Wally and Kolby's relationship, so if you haven't read that I suggest you do so. Also, there is a small sex scene at towards the end of this chapter and that is what has caused the change in rating.

The six members of the Celtic Guard stood before the Justice League’s founding seven. They sat at a u shaped table, staring the six younger heroes down. Usually, only Morrigan would be allowed on the Watchtower, but they made an exception this once. 

“So, what’s this all about, Morrigan?” Superman asked, sitting at the head of the table. 

Morrigan frowned heavily and looked away. She nudged Donn, who glared at her before stepping forward and addressing the heroes. 

“Early this morning I received a call from the police chief of our hometown,” she said, wringing her hands and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. “She told me that three members of the Garden Council have escaped from jail and are currently at large.”

Gwydion gaged the reaction of the League members. Batman, Superman, and Flash had all been there on the Day of Blooming to help with the incident but the others had no idea who the Garden Council even was. As such, the look of confusion that Wonder Woman and the other three members shared was unsurprising. 

“Who escaped?” Batman asked, his face impassive.

“Cherry Blossom, Lily of the Valley, and Morning Glory,” Donn informed him. “The rest of the world knows them as Sable Asakura, Blair Thomas, and Kiki Chen.”

“I don’t understand the concern,” Wonder Woman admitted. “Who are they talking about?”

“The Garden Council is a group of five young woman from privileged backgrounds who attempted to use a synthesized compound of euphoriants and other drugs to take over our home town,” Gwydion explained. “We successfully apprehended them last time with the help of Superman, Flash, and Batman and Robin.”

“You have heroes there. I don’t see how this is an issue for the league, especially since there’s less of them now,” Green Lantern reasoned. 

“Do you really think they’re going to be content trying to take over our tiny town over and over again?” Scathatch questioned sarcastically, crossing her arms and glaring at the heroes at the table. “No way, these girls aren’t gonna stick around. They’re already gone and planning things for different territories. Bigger territories. Soon enough you’re gonna be seeing their ‘fertilizer’ in places like Central, Coast City, Gotham, Metropolis. And that’s only if they stay in the United States.” 

“And don’t think they won’t recruit new members along the way,” Cernunnos added, squeaking and turning away with pink cheeks when Superman turned his way.

Batman set his gaze on Morrigan, who’s gaze remained on the floor. He could see the furrowing of her brow and her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. This bothered her. He could understand why. She had put trust in a justice system to punish these girls properly and it had failed miserably. Her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear what she said. On his left, Superman stiffened.

“What was that, Morrigan?” he asked, his tone suddenly clipped and unfriendly. 

The Guard and League all turned their gazes to Kolby, her hands clenching only tighter.

“I said,” she growled, “That we should have taken care of them the first time.”

The seven heroes at the table gasped. Superman stood quickly, locking eyes with Kolby. Wally looked back and forth between the two leaders, mouth agape and worried etched onto his face. He didn’t want to take sides, but he also didn’t want to stand by and watch as Kolby tried to take on Superman.

“We don’t kill, Morrigan,” Batman reminded her, his voice calm despite the emotional tension in the room.

“You don’t kill,” she corrected him. “And look at where that’s gotten you. Noble as your intentions are, Bruce, can you honestly tell me that you’re doing the right thing by letting those people get lock up only to escape time and again and hurt more people? Tell me, how many children have lost their parents to the Joker?”

She could feel Bruce’s glare on her even if his eyes were hidden by the cowl. 

“You wouldn’t even deal with him when he killed Jason!” she reminded him. “He tortured and destroyed a child who was your responsibility! And yet you still let him live! If it was me, he wouldn’t have lasted another week!”

“We do not have to drop to their level to deal with these criminals.”

“If killing criminals made you a bad guy then why aren’t you going after police officers? Or fucking Seal Team 6? Killing some of those assholes wouldn’t make you a criminal it’d make you a goddamn hero!” Kolby shouted, motioning wildly with her arms. “Do you think not killing them gives you some kind of impenetrable moral high ground? It doesn’t! It just makes you jokes! I’m not even talking about the petty criminals, the thieves or the muggers. I’m talking about the big guys, the ones who don’t learn. You want Jus ad bellum, then how about the fact these girls were planning on using psychoactive drugs on CHILDREN so they could control a town and bend it to their will. They were going to taint a water supply with a drug that some of those poor kids they roped into being their guinea pigs are still dealing with withdrawal symptoms for! They don’t care about anyone other than themselves and have proven it time and again. Cherry Blossom tried to kill Lugh and Cernunnos because she was pissed at Lugh for breaking up with her! She attempted to kidnap Scathatch and Druantia for the same reasons. And I have no doubt she will come after us with some twisted need for vengeance.”

All eyes were on Kolby as she screamed at the world’s greatest heroes. Her vision was blurry from tears of frustration that lingered at the corners of her eyes and her hands were shaking and she just wanted to pound some sense into these people.

“One of those girls pointed a gun at your son, Bruce,” she reminded. “But I guess that doesn’t matter to you.”

“Kolby…” Rachel whispered, reaching out only for Kolby to step closer to the table.

“As long as you have your precious moral high ground to stand on, you don’t care how many innocents get murdered. You’re still our fucking savior,” she hissed, her eyes turning crimson behind her visor. “Give praise to the mighty Justice League and their unwavering moral compass!”

“That’s enough!” Superman bellowed, slamming his hands down on the table. 

“If Sable and the others come for me, if they put innocents in harms way again, if they so much as look at the people I care about funny,” Kolby said quietly, dangerously. “I’m going to kill them. I’m going to stop them from ever being a threat again. And you will not stop me.”

“You do that and you’re ejected from the League,” Hawkgirl informed her.

“That’s fine by me,” Kolby replied blithely, shrugging casually. “I’m a grown ass woman. I don’t need you telling me how I can and can’t save people.”

She turned on her heel and walked back towards her team, who did not waver under the harsh gaze of the League. 

“Help us catch them before they do anything regrettable and we’ll do this your way,” Kolby informed them. “But if I have to, I will end them.”

 

Morrigan stalked down the halls of the WatchTower The others had been sent home but she was still on duty. She heard Flash coming, his foot falls on the metal floor gave him away. He stopped right in front of her, concern in his eyes.

“Hey, what was all that back there?” he asked, pulling her aside so others could pass by them. “You’re not…you’re not actually going to kill those girls, are you?”

Kolby’s shoulders rose as her body tensed before she sighed heavily, the tension leaving her body. Wally’s frown deepened at how defeated she looked. 

“I don’t know,” she admitted, looking down at the floor rather than at Wally. “I won’t if I don’t have to but I…I was just so angry. Maybe I said some things I shouldn’t have but I’m not going to take it back. I can’t be like you guys. I’m not a paragon. I’m human and if comes down to falling into the same cycle they have or killing my enemy, I can’t say I won’t off them before it gets that far. And I’m not talking about all the bad guys. I’ve met your rogues. They’re thieves and pranksters and they don’t really hurt civilians. That’s…that’s whatever. I’m not talking about people like them. I just…I just wish they could understand that killing doesn’t automatically makes you the bad guy.”

“Have you killed before?” he asked, and for the first time Kolby met his gaze.

“Once.” 

She didn’t want to elaborate but the look Wally gave her made it clear he wouldn’t be satisfied with just that. He wanted a reason, wanted to know why she’d do such a thing. She turned away again, wrapping her arms around herself as she gazed out the large window and into space.

“The Heretic. He was a clone Talia had made of Damian after he chose Bruce and Dick over her. He killed Damian, so I killed him,” she explained, watching the reflection of Wally’s face in the window. “I wanted him to pay for taking Damian away from us. So I burned him. I cooked him alive in his armor. He took Damian’s life so I took his. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No! Kolby, you’re not a bad person!” Wally insisted, grabbing Kolby by the shoulders and turning her to face him. “You’re not a bad person, Kolby. I refuse to think you ever could be.”

“But I killed him. I killed the Heretic. And I would have killed Talia too if someone hadn’t beaten me to it. I did it for revenge, because I was angry. Isn’t that what bad guys do?”

“Do you think you’re a bad guy?”

Kolby shook her head. “No, but they do. And that’s the problem. They’ve been thinking the way they do for so long and just surrounding themselves with people who think the same way and removing anyone who thinks differently. I agree that killing just any criminal isn’t the way to go. But there have to be exceptions to every rule, Wally. That’s all I’m saying.”

Wally pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder. His hands soothed up and down her back. He didn’t want her to be right, but maybe she was. He’d never killed anyone, and he didn’t think he could. But Kolby had different experiences and values than he did. He couldn’t fault her in wanting to keep the people she cared about safe in any way she could. He just held her tighter.

“We’ll stop them before we have to make that exception.” 

 

Thanksgiving break was the only time the six members of the Guard were all back in town at the same time, so that’s when Batman planned their initial investigation of the Council’s old holdings. He brought along Robin and Green Arrow, who owed Gwydion a favor anyway. The two had been working together a lot since Gwydion had moved to Star City for college. They would be splitting into three teams to investigate three different known haunts of the Council. The old water treatment plant, a guest house on Cornfield property, and the high school where the girls supposedly had a hidden cache of drugs and equipment. The police had never been able to find it, but that didn’t mean Batman couldn’t. 

Batman took Scathatch and Donn to the high school in hopes of finding the hidden cache. Green Arrow would take Gwydion and Lugh to the Cornfield guest house to see if any of the girls had passed by there recently. Morrigan would be with Robin and Cernunnos as she investigated the old lab in the water treatment plant.

Donn had no idea the school windows even opened, but Batman had no issue pulling them open so the three of them could sneak in. The school looked unusually spooky in the dark. She wasn’t even able to see the other side of the long main hallway in the darkness. 

“Scathatch,” Batman turned to the youngest team member, “Can you use your shadows to map out the building and see if you can find hidden rooms?”

“I’ve never done that before but I can try,” Scathatch replied, closing her eyes and concentrating on every tiny bit of shadow and shade she could reach. The school stretched out in her mind’s eye. She had pretty much memorized where everything was in the school in her time as a student there, but then she found something she didn’t remember being there.

“I think I found something,” she said, “On a staircase landing. There seems to be something behind a wall.”

“Take us there,” Batman ordered, standing aside as Scathatch walked down the hallway to avoid being shoved aside. 

The staircase was on the far side of the school, near the gym. If Donn was honest, she had no idea the thing had existed before now. Not a lot of people used it and it showed. Scathatch stopped on the landing where the staircase curved on it’s way up to the second floor. She placed her hand against one of the walls and pushed, frowning when it didn’t budge.

“It should be behind here,” she muttered. “Something is behind here at least.” 

Batman reached for his belt, pulling out a small explosive. Donn quickly reached out and batted at his hand.

“Don’t fucking blow up my school!” she shouted. “At least not a part so small that I’d still have to go to class.”

She could feel the incredulous raised eyebrow more than she could see it, but she didn’t let it bother her. She tapped at the wall, which seemed as solid as any other wall. She hummed thoughtfully. She looked up at the ceiling, an idea coming to her. 

“Hey, Batsy, give me a boost.”

The man held out his hands without complaint, lifting Donn just high enough that she could push the ceiling panel aside and haul herself up. The space was small, but she could crawl through it easily enough. And just like she thought, the wall did not extend above the ceiling. There was a small blockade of what looked like insulation foam but it was easily pushed aside. Honestly, Rachel had no idea how this room wasn’t found by maintenance guys before now. She crawled forward a bit more, lifting a panel just beyond the foam barrier and dropping in. 

What she found was less a cache of drugs or weapons but a research lab, full of heavy looking books and loose papers. Beakers sat upon hot plates and blueprints hung on the walls. She turned to the task at hand before she got too distracted by her surroundings. The door wasn’t even all that sophisticated, but who ever had last closed it had slammed it which had messed up the rolling mechanism that moved the door aside. She barely got it open enough for the other two to squeeze in.

“Don’t be mad, but this def isn’t what we expected it to be,” Donn warned.

The two black-clad heroes looked around the small room. Batman went about, looking for signs of recent use while Donn and Scathatch took stock of all the papers in the room.

“It almost looks like this was their base of operations before they moved to the water treatment plant,” Scathatch thought aloud, setting down a stack of papers covered in complicated chemical formulas. 

“Which probably means no one’s been here in a while,” Donn concluded. 

“Maybe not,” Bruce argued. “There’s a unevenness in the layer of dust on these papers. Some of them have been moved recently.”

“Only he would notice an uneven dust layer,” Scathatch muttered, Donn giving an amused snort as the younger hero rolled her eyes.

“They might have taken some of the papers,” Donn reasoned. “Since they knew no one had found this room, they figured their research was still there and up for the taking.”

“Grab the rest,” Batman ordered, stuffing some papers into spare utility belt pockets. 

Donn and Scathatch gave each other one of those ‘are you fucking kidding me’ looks before grabbing as many papers as they could carry.

 

It was a good thing that the guest house was so far back from the main house. There was no way Lugh’s heavy landing as he jumped the fence would have gone unnoticed otherwise. Gwydion was quick in disarming the security system and one of Ollie’s many credit cards made quick work of the deadbolt lock. 

The house was fairly large, bigger than Mark’s studio apartment in Star City at least (not like it was hard to be, but still). Mark slipped into the computer room on the main floor, downloading any and all files he could find. Lugh and Arrow’s investigation was much more manual. Lugh pulled open drawers and found a mess of clothes that looked like they had been gone through recently. There was an odd number of socks, so whoever had been here was in a hurry. Arrow found some recent finger prints on the bathroom sinks that matched what the Guard had on file for the girls. 

Suddenly there was the sound of dogs barking and Gwydion ran back through the house.

“Someone’s coming. We gotta go.”

Arrow hissed out a few choice swear words and pushed Lugh forward. The three men slid out through the back door. They hopped the fence just as the lights in the guest house flickered on. The three sped away on the motorbikes that waited for them in the empty field just behind the fence. 

“Someone had definitely been there recently,” Lugh huffed over the comlink. “But they weren’t there for too long.”

“I grabbed everything I could from the computer,” Gwydion informed them. “We’ll get Druantia to go through it all when we get back.”

 

Morrigan liked the fact she could fly right over any fence in her way. She landed softly on the ground just beyond the chain-link fence. She turned back to see Cernunnos coaxing some woody vine to lift him and Robin up and over the barrier. The three jogged across the open space to the door of the main building. Morrigan was mildly surprised when the door wasn’t locked, but she didn’t think too hard on it. The police probably didn’t see a reason to keep the door locked after the initial investigation after the Day of Blooming. 

The building was dark. Morrigan was lucky for the night vision on her visor and Cernunnos was lucky for Robin’s utility belt and the mini flashlight that came with it. Morrigan made her way through the lab, looking for anything out of place. Robin moved directly to the main computer, grinning wickedly when the back up generator kicked in when he tried to turn it on. Cernunnos slipped into the security room, downloading every minute of footage from the past few weeks. Like the computer, the cameras ran on the backup generator, which meant they’d would have been recording should the girls have stopped by. They worked as efficiently as they could, Morrigan unable to find anything during her sweep but she knew Robin and Cernunnos would have much more luck than she did. 

They returned to the base soon afterwards. Robin passed his data from the computer off to Druantia, who was already scanning through the files Gwydion brought her. Cernunnos and Gwydion started scanning through the security footage. 

Morrigan stood back with Batman and the others as the three smart guys of the team worked through everything.

“If there’s anything of note, those guys will find it,” she assured the older heroes. 

“I guess in the mean time we’ll go through the fuckton of papers Batsy made us grab,” Donn grumbled, waving her stack of papers about.

“They’re all dated,” Scathatch pointed out. “But the latest I’ve got is from six months before the Day of Blooming.”

Batman and Donn flipped through their own stacks, confirming what Scathatch said. The notes were old and handwritten in terrible chicken scratch. They were practically daily. Rachel’s brows furrowed when they organized the notes chronologically.

“I think some days are missing,” she said. “See, I’ve got the 15th and the 17th, but no 16th. And from what I can tell they talk about two completely different things.”

Notes were missing, but their contents weren’t lost to the Guard. Mark’s files contained the missing pages in photocopied form. They seemed to be final formulas. 

“Why would they scan them if they had the papers?” Luke asked.

“Because it’s less conspicuous to carry a pen drive around than it is to carry a bunch of notebook paper,” Tabby explained. “Plus it’s more private. You can’t password protect paper.”

“They also could have sent it to someone,” Kolby theorized. 

“If it was sent by email, it would have been through one of those disposable ones like gmail or Hotmail or something because there wasn’t an email program on the computer,” Mark said.

“Which means we don’t know if they sent it or where it went if they did.” Kolby frowned heavily.

“There’s nothing new in the files from the water treatment plant,” Tabby announced. “It’s the same stuff from when we first investigated it.”

“They did go back there though,” Toby said, leaning back against a desk and crossing his arms. “The cameras caught them going in and out three days after their initial escape. They were only in there for about fifteen minutes. But that’s more than enough time to grab whatever files they needed from the computer.”

“So they’re out there and they have their formulas, which means they can recreate them as soon as they get a lab up and running,” Ollie grumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. 

“And we have no way of knowing where they went, thanks to their parents paying off the national media to keep quiet,” Robin growled. “No one outside the state will likely know who these girls are so no one is going to report their sightings.”

Kolby sighed heavily, throwing her hood back and running her fingers through her hair. They’d only just begun and they’d already hit a dead end. She had a sinking feeling that Sable was going to show up in Central or Gotham. Hanging around their town would be a stupid idea, so at least Luke and Toby were safe. But Kolby had no doubt she’d come after the Morrigan. The only questions were when and how. But that didn’t take Blair or Kiki into account. Where did they go?

“This is all we can do for now,” Batman said. “We’ll have the League on alert and do what we can to find the girls. But for now, it’s good we know this much.”

 

Kolby returned to Central soon after. She had plenty of end of semester projects to deal with along with finals preparation and almost forgot about the Garden Council ordeal. 

That is, until something happened at the university’s theatre. Wally called her first, saying the police had gotten a 911 call from inside the theatre saying a masked woman in pink had taken over the production of Nutcracker. She changed quickly and met him there (along with the rest of Central City PD). 

“I knew she’d try and confront me sooner or later,” Kolby hissed, striding up the stairs to the theatre’s grand double doors. 

“This doesn’t seem like their MO, though,” Wally noted. “Have they ever taken hostages before.”

“She attempted to kidnap Druantia and Scathatch before,” she said. “But taking a whole theatre of people? That’s new. Especially since she doesn’t have her druggies to help her this time.”

“Well, if it’s just her then we shouldn’t have a problem!” Wally chirped, pulling open the door and speeding in.

Something didn’t feel right, though, so Kolby moved slowly. Wally slammed open the doors that led into the theatre proper and Kolby heard unsettling noises. Not noises of pain or sorrow, but something very different. And then she smelled something. Something that tickled her nose with it’s spicy scent and a thought crossed her mind.

‘Oh god, she’s made it airborne.’

“FLASH!” she hiked up the collar of her shirt over her nose and mouth as she ran into the room.

She winced at the writhing bodies on the floor. Most of them were only half dressed and she tried very hard not to stare. Sable sat on the edge of the stage like she owned it, a gas mask covering her nose and mouth. Flash had made it to the foot of the stage before the drug had taken hold of him and he collapsed at Sable’s feet.

“Hello, Morrigan,” Sable greeted cheerfully. “How do you like the improvements I’ve made to my fertilizer. Don’t they look like their having fun?”

“Sure if you call fucking uncontrollably until you have a heart attack fun,” Kolby spat. She was already uploading the video stream from her visor’s camera to the Watchtower. Wonder Woman was yelling in her ear to get out of there. But she wasn’t about to leave Wally. 

She took off into the air, the drug swirling around her as she beat her wings. She could feel it tickling her nose and throat and she knew she’d inhaled some. She grabbed Wally by the arm and flew back out of the theatre, slamming the door shut behind her. The police looked confused, but Kolby didn’t have time for that.

“Watch Tower, two to beam up. And get a med room ready!”

 

“So her drug is airborne now,” Batman murmured, staring down at Wally as Kolby explained the situation.

Bruce and John Stewart had met her and the unconscious Wally on the teleport pad. Now the three discussed the situation in one of the Watch Towers many medical facilities. Wally was strapped to the bed and heart monitors beeped on the wall. His heart beat was faster than it usually was. 

“Normally his metabolism would speed right through something like this, but that doesn’t seem to be happening,” John observed, taking in Wally’s flushed cheeks and sweat drenched hair with concern.

“We have no idea how long this new drug lasts in a normal human body,” Batman said. “Nor how much he actually inhaled.”

“I’m just worried it won’t work its way out of his system on it’s own,” Kolby said, shifting restlessly from one foot to the other. “It might need a certain level of hormones to kick it out. Which means we’re both stuck.”

“You inhaled some as well?” Batman turned to his ally, who nodded. “How are you able to keep control?”

“I blocked as much pollen as I could,” Kolby answered, demonstrating her technique. “And I spent as little time as possible in the room. But I could feel myself breath it in.”

“What are you suggesting, then?” Green Lantern asked.

Kolby slipped her visor off, revealing one golden eye to the two men. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to fight off the affects of the drug, or Macha. But if it works the way I think it works, then I just need some time alone with Flash.”

“What if it doesn’t work the way you think it does? Those people were still blitz out of their minds when you got there.”

“They were also continuing inhaling the drug,” she reminded. “Wally and I only got a singular dose. Besides, what else can you do? We don’t have a sample to synthesize an antidote yet and by the time Supergirl and her team gets done down there Sable will be gone and the formula with her. This is the only solution I can come up with right now, so I might as well give it a shot.”

Lantern looked ready to argue some more, but Batman’s solid hand on his shoulder stopped him before he could start. Bruce gave a nod to Kolby, which was about as much approval as she was going to get for this plan.

“You sure you’re okay with this?” he asked, just in case.

“Just promise me you’ll turn off the security cameras?” she requested. “I’d rather not scar the rest of the League for life. And I’d never hear the end of it from Ollie if I accidentally end up making a sex tape.”

Batman left, pushing Green Lantern out in front of him. Kolby waited for confirmation from her mentor that the cameras had been shut off before inhaling deeply and moving towards her boyfriend. She patted his cheek softly in an attempt to wake him up.

“Wally? C’mon Wally, wake up.”

Wally’s eyes fluttered open and he turned to stare at Kolby with glassy green eyes. He smiled dopily at her, tugging at his restrained hands.

“Hey pretty bird,” he greeted. “I didn’t know your eyes could turn gold. It’s really pretty.”

“Wally, I need you to focus,” Kolby told him, her hands shaking as they moved to his restraints. “Sable got us with a new version of her drug. Do you remember? We’re going to try and work it out of our systems, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.” Wally just grinned at her. “That means I get to touch you right? I really wanna touch you.”

“Just as soon as I get these things off you,” Kolby promised. 

She released his hands first and Wally shot up, pushing her hood back and running his fingers through her hair as he kissed her. Even under the influence of Sable’s aphrodisiac he was gentle. Kolby felt a rush of relief go through her at the realization. 

She reached down and removed the restraints around Wally’s ankles and suddenly felt herself pressed against a wall. She fucking hated super speed sometimes, when had he hiked her legs up around his hips? She felt the strange texture of his gloved hands move up and under her shirt, splaying across her back and it hit her that they were both still in uniform. She had no idea how his Flash costume even worked, how were they going to do this? Was it two piece? It had to be right? Otherwise how the fuck did he get into it? Her thoughts were running a mile a minute and she couldn’t focus on any of them. Macha’s hissing laugh in the back of her mind didn’t help, but she knew Morrigan and Badb would keep their sister at bay. 

She was brought back into the moment when Wally started peppering her neck with kisses. She warned him not to leave any hickeys where someone could see them, she didn’t want to have to explain how she got them to anyone (especially not any of the Guard). His hands slid down to cup her ass, hiking her higher up on the wall. His fingers ran across the waistband of her pants and Kolby felt the nervousness rush back in and settle in the pit of her stomach. They’d only done this one time before and while Wally had done everything he could to make her feel good the idea was still new and frightening to her. 

Wally noticed Kolby tensing up and moved his hands back to her hair, running his fingers through it and whispering to her.

“Shh, it’s okay, I got you,” he whispered. “It’s just me. You know me. I’m gonna make you feel good, I promise.”

He waited, as hard as that was to do, until he felt Kolby nod against his shoulder before proceeding. He slipped his hands back down to her waist band, tugging her pants down a short way before realizing the position their in made it difficult to undress. He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth as he lowered her legs back to the ground. Kolby leaned back against the wall as she watched Wally kneel down and slowly slide her pants down. He put a hand under her knee, gently lifting her foot out of her pants, placing a kiss to each knee as he did. He glanced up at her, green eyes meeting brown and Wally was almost disappointed that her one eye wasn’t golden anymore. He held her gaze as he reached up once again, hooking his fingers under her panties and slowly pulled them down. 

Kolby gasped aloud when she felt Wally’s mouth on her wetness, tossing her head back so hard that if she was in her right mind she’d be worried that the people in the next room had heard it. He licked at her, a singular finger entered her and she moaned when it vibrated. Okay, that just wasn’t fair. 

“W-Wally,” she panted out his name and she could feel him shiver between her thighs. 

“Just gotta make sure you’re all good to go down here, babe,” Wally told her, and Kolby was starting to hate that dopey grin of his.

“Considering what we inhaled in the theatre, I don’t think you have to work too hard.”

Wally chuckled, standing back up and placing a kiss to Kolby’s nose. He laughed at her cross eyed expression, kissing her once again. He moved to lift her legs once again but Kolby stopped him, reminding him that she really would prefer if he wore a condom. He frowned, remembering that his Flash suit definitely didn’t have any pockets. He pressed a kiss to Kolby cheek before zipping around the room, throwing open drawers and cabinets in his search for condoms. He gave a victorious laugh when he found some in the back of one of the cabinets and returned to Kolby.

“Is that a Wayne Pharmaceuticals condom?” she asked, not failing to see the humor in the situation.

“Well, Batsy is the one who paid for the place, so I guess it only makes sense,” Wally joked. “But I’d rather not think about Batsy when we’re having sex.”

Kolby once again found herself with her legs wrapped around Wally as the speedster rolled the condom on. This was always the part that made her the most nervous (always being the one time they’d done this before). Wally felt her muscles tense under his fingers. She still wasn’t used to this sort of thing, he knew she wasn’t. How could she be with the fact she was still a virgin up until a few weeks ago. He rubbed little circles into her thighs, whispering into her ear that she needed to relax. That he wanted this to be good for her but she had to meet him halfway. 

Kolby breathed deeply, trying her hardest to relax. The drug made it easier, but she didn’t want to think about that. Wally waited, the head of his cock brushing against Kolby’s entrance once, twice, before deciding she was relaxed enough that he wouldn’t hurt her and slowly penetrated her. Kolby’s breath hitched, but she had to admit it was easier this time then it had been their first go round. Not that it had been hard, but there was only so much you could do your first time (not that it had been Wally’s first time. He’d dated Fire for a short time before he’d met Kolby and there was no way those two hadn’t had sex). 

It definitely felt better this time and Kolby really hoped it wasn’t just because of Sable’s stupid drug. Wally was careful with his thrusts, listening closely to the sounds Kolby made and watching her face the entire time. It felt good, but Wally could tell that it wouldn’t be enough for Kolby and he wasn’t about to be the only one who climaxed. He reached down, and did that little vibrating trick of his on Kolby’s clit. She yelped and he quickly withdrew.

“Too much?” he asked, rubbing tiny circular apologies into her thighs.

“Too much,” she confirmed. “Try one on either side, and slower.”

Wally did as he was told, grinning when Kolby gasped out a ‘fuck yeah’ in his ear. They were quickly coming to the end, which was probably a good thing. Kolby had no idea how long they’d been doing this but if they didn’t finish soon Bruce would probably come to check on them and she really didn’t want that. She felt Wally come, his cock twitching inside her as he rested his head against her shoulder and groaned. And Wally made damn sure that Kolby was just behind him, vibrating his fingers just a little harder until he felt her thighs clench and heard her breath catch.

“You good?” he asked softly.

Kolby nodded, panting heavily. She muttered something Wally couldn’t catch.

“Huh? Say that again.”

“I said I need to pee, you dork,” Kolby laughed. “Put me down.”

Wally chuckled, setting Kolby’s feet back on the floor. He leaned down to kiss her one more time, only to have Kolby push his face away.

“I’m not kissing you til you wash that nasty mouth of yours. I’m not nearly kinky enough to want to taste my own vagina on you.”

“Guess that means the drug isn’t affecting you anymore,” Wally thought aloud, watching Kolby close the door to the small water closet attached to the room.

“Looks like I can say the same of you,” Kolby’s muffled voice answered through the door.

She emerged moments later to find Wally fully dressed and with a spare toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. She quickly redressed herself and returned her visor to her face, calling Batman and letting him know they were done and the plan had worked. Now it was time for the real work to start.

 

“So how are the victims?” was the first question Morrigan asked when she and Flash met Batman and Supergirl later.

“Most were uninjured, but we’re having everyone tested for STIs just in case,” Supergirl informed her.

“And Cherry Blossom?” she asked.

“Gone when we got there.”

“Of course she was.”

“At least we know she’s in the area,” Wally said in an attempt to placate Kolby. 

“I guess,” she sighed. “That doesn’t exactly make me feel better.”

“I know,” Batman soothed, and it was weird for Kolby to hear him speak like that to her. “But sometimes that’s what we have to deal with. It’s very rare for the problems we deal with to be solved in a day.”


	4. (Sort of) Home for Christmas

Winter in Texas was hardly magical. Snow was rare but ice was positively everywhere and the wind didn’t so much nip at your nose as it attempted to bite it off. Rachel hated December in Texas, so when Tim called her up one day early into Christmas break she knew something good was on its way. 

“He invited you over for Christmas?” Kolby seemed almost surprised. Honestly, she was just surprised Damian hadn’t tried the same thing with her before.

“Well, technically he invited all three of us,” Rachel clarified. “And our families.”

“That is both the best and worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Mark groaned. “We can’t take our parents to Gotham! What if something happens and we have to patrolling?”

“Well, I mean, my parents already know about the whole Morrigan thing,” Kolby said with a shrug. “They don’t know about anyone else, but they know about me at least.”

The three sat in silence, thinking. Spending Christmas with the Wayne’s was bound to be more entertaining than anything that happened with their own families. Despite it being farther north, the winter weather in Gotham was actually pretty nice. At least it snowed in Gotham. 

“Here’s the issue though,” Mark said, breaking the silence, “We definitely don’t have the money to buy all of the guys a gift.”

Rachel grabbed her math notebook, ripping out a small strip of paper from it and jotting down the names of the Robins. She then ripped the names into separate pieces of paper, crumpling each of them into tiny balls. She cupped her hands together, shaking her pieces of paper up. She then held her hand out to the others.

“Pick a name, any name,” she joked. Kolby and Mark reached in and took a name each, leaving Rachel with who ever was left over.

“Tim,” Mark read the name aloud.

“I’ve got Dick,” Kolby told them.

“Which means I’ve got the demon child,” Rachel concluded, opening her paper to confirm what they all knew anyway. 

Mark and Kolby looked at her with a grin and spoke in stereo, “Good fucking luck.”

 

“What do you mean we don’t get to go?” Tabitha whined, leaning over the back of the hideout’s crappy old couch and pouting at the eldest of the Guard.

“We can’t leave the city undefended,” Kolby explained to her. “Not with most of the Garden Council on the loose.

“Besides, the four of you don’t have the same kind of personal relationship with the Waynes like we do,” Rachel continued with a shrug. “Maybe when you spend every summer under the heel of Wayne Enterprises you can come visit for Christmas too.”

“Well, can we at least participate in some kind of gift exchange?” Sam asked. “I don’t really expect anything back since they don’t know us that well, but we can at least send something their way.”

“I would say you could get Bruce something, but I don’t want him to think we like him,” Mark joked. 

Kolby’s eyes went wide in realization and she gasped, turning to the others and speaking, “Oh shit, guys. We forgot Jason!”

“Does he even visit for Christmas?” Mark asked, an incredulous eyebrow climbing up his brow.

“It’s like the only time he does when it’s not some kind of emergency,” Kolby confirmed.

“We’ll take care of it,” Toby offered. “Surely the four of us can come up with a gift for him.”

“Yeah, I mean he can’t be that hard to buy for,” Luke reasoned. “What does he like?”

Kolby, Mark, and Rachel frowned, unsure how to answer that question. They didn’t know Jason nearly as well as they knew the other three Robins. 

“Booze?” Rachel tried.

Kolby quickly turned to the four younger Guard, “If you lot try to buy booze illegally, Imma smack you!”

“Alright, _mom_ , we won’t try and get him alcohol, jeez,” Luke grumbled, crossing his arms and sinking lower into the couch.

“Damn straight.”

 

Alfred and Bruce were waiting for The Guard and their families at the airport when they arrived on Christmas Eve. The two men greeted the Guard’s families cheerfully, thanking them for coming all this way just so the kids could spend some time together.

“The boys are very fond of your children,” Alfred insisted. “Master Damian has been pacing about all day waiting for them to arrive.”

“We probably shouldn’t leave him waiting much longer,” Bruce said with a chuckle. “I’ll take the kids and go ahead to the manor. Alfred will help with the luggage and get you folks there in no time.”

Rachel and the others shoved their suitcases into the trunk of Bruce’s car (something fancy looking and black with leather seats and a stick shift) before climbing in, Kolby up front with Bruce. It had snowed recently in Gotham, Rachel noted. She wondered if she could get the others to agree to a Robins verses Guard snowball fight. She could definitely talk at least Dick into it.

She stared out the window, not paying attention to the conversation Bruce and Kolby were having in the front about the Garden Council and how their investigations hadn’t gone anywhere since Thanksgiving and the incident in Central. She and Mark knew a little bit about what happened in Central just before break started. Sable had showed up and made a mess before disappearing into the aether. She and Mark hadn’t encountered the escaped girls just yet, but they were fairly certain they would soon enough.

They arrived to the manor soon enough, Dick coming out into the snow to greet them with hugs. If Rachel and the others noticed him hold Mark just a tad bit longer, they didn’t say anything. Tim and Damian stood in the doorway, Damian wrapped up in some warm looking blanket despite the fact he wasn’t even out in the cold. Kolby called out to him with a smile, holding her arms open for a hug of her own. He made a face and shook his head. 

“Aw, little demon child’s afraid of the cold,” Rachel teased, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and hopping up the steps to the manor’s door.

“I am not afraid of cold, Ollivier,” Damian hissed. “I just have a distinct distaste for it.” 

“Poor baby,” Kolby murmured softly as she reached the front door just behind Rachel. She wrapped one arm around him in a half hug, focusing on her fire magic to raise the ambient temperature around them just a smidge. Much more and she’d probably set something on fire. 

Tim rolled his eyes, pulling Rachel into a hug in greeting. He led them into the front living room, which had been decked out for the season with a tree that was too big to be real. The scent of pine and fresh baked cookies filled their noses as fairy lights twinkled on the tree in every color of the rainbow. Quilts and pillows were spread out on the floor and couches and the fireplace was lit. It was like every Christmas card Rachel had ever seen. 

By the time Alfred and their parents got there, the three were already bundled up in blankets and sipping on warm drinks. Their parents were amazed at how easily the three made themselves at home in the manor. Rachel was curled up with Tim on the couch, sharing some long, patchwork quilt with their legs tangling together just under it and out of sight. Dick was draped across an arm chair, head resting on one arm while his legs dangled over the other. Mark sat just below him on some beanbag, sipping on a hot drink as he scrolled through the internet on his phone. Damian and Kolby huddled together on a pile of cushions on the floor, sharing a quilt like Tim and Rachel and within arm’s reach of the coffee table where Alfred had left a plate of fresh cookies. Snickerdoodles, which were always Kolby’s favorite. Kolby was reading some book she’d brought with her for the flight, Damian leaning into her shoulder and eyes scanning the pages but not really taking in the words. 

“You weren’t lying about them liking each other,” Kolby’s father joked with Alfred. 

Kolby looked up from her book and smiled at the man. “Hi, daddy.”

Damian looked up as well, seeing the person Kolby had referred to as her father. They looked alike, their hair and eyes similar shades and they shared the same strong cheekbones. He stood, walking over to the man and bowing slightly in greeting.

“Mr. Morgan, I wish to ask for your blessing in courting your daughter.”

Kolby groaned loudly, hiding her face in her book. Her father, on the other hand, laughed heartily at the ridiculousness of the situation. Who wouldn’t when some preteen kid asked you if he could ‘court’ your daughter like he was trying out for a period piece.

“Isn’t that, cute, Kolby, kid’s got a case of puppy love,” he said to his daughter with a laugh.

“Don’t forget to ask for a dowry, Mr. Morgan!” Rachel called to him and Kolby looked like she was going to strangle her.

“Hmm, yes, you’re quite right, Rachel,” the man crowed, “Well kid, I need at least one cow and three chickens.”

“He’s got an island! Ask for his island!” Rachel howled with laughter and Kolby leapt at her, only to be pushed back by Tim’s foot.

“Heck, he can have my whole house along with her if he gives me an island.”

“That’s enough, Danny, your daughter is going to have a conniption if you keep going,” Mrs. Morgan intervened, but even she giggled at the sight of a red faced Kolby being pushed away from Rachel by Tim’s socked foot. 

“I hate you all so much,” she growled.

“You love us,” Rachel corrected, snuggling down into the quilt and waving a greeting to her parents as they came into view. 

Damian returned to Kolby’s side, reaching for another cookie and munching on it as he got comfortable again.

“Don’t fill up on cookies before dinner, Damian,” Bruce warned. “You know how Alfred gets when we don’t eat properly.”

 

Dinner was a spectacle in and of itself. Kolby didn’t know how Alfred did it, but she was fairly certain the man had made a different kind of side dish for every person present to go along with the splendid turkey he’d cooked. Well, two and a half turkeys (and yes, Damian’s tofurkey only counted as a half turkey as far as Rachel was concerned). Everyone’s plate was piled high with food and they still managed to have enough leftovers for days. 

After dinner the Guard rushed up to their rooms to grab the presents they had brought and bring them down to stick under the tree. The pile of presents was surprisingly small, one clearly labeled for each Robin in Bruce’s handwriting, one for Alfred, and one for each of them. They almost felt bad that their parents weren’t getting any presents from the Batfamily, but they supposed it wasn’t all that surprising. Their families had been invited because Christmas was a family holiday, not because the Waynes were particularly friendly with them. They set their presents down with the rest of the neatly wrapped gifts. 

The four families gathered in the living space, which had gained a few couches and chairs since that afternoon, enjoying cups of cocoa and tea as Kolby’s father read The Night Before Christmas, which was a tradition for the family. Afterwards they tuned in to some Christmas movie marathon just in time to catch the beginning of the Muppet Christmas Carol. Little by little, the group began to peter off, heading off to bed before it got too late. First it was Mark’s mother, who was used to going to bed early and getting up at the crack of dawn. Later it was Kolby’s parents and Alfred, then Rachel’s folks. Bruce left after the movie was over, before Frosty’s Winter Wonderland could start up. Damian fell asleep halfway through the movie, so once it was done Kolby carted him off to bed, deciding she might as well hit the hay too. By this point Rachel was determined to be the last one awake, making a fuss when Tim herded her towards her bedroom when it reached midnight and no one else was awake.

“Noooo, you’re gonna win!” she whined, slapping lightly at Tim’s back as he carried her up the stairs slung over his shoulder. “I wanna win!”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re currently in first place for whiniest baby,” Tim joked, which earned him a slap in the butt from Rachel. 

“Don’t sass me, Timothy,” she warned, though it was kind of hard to take her seriously when she started yawning half way through. 

He chuckled, laying his friend as gently as he could on her bed and tucking a spare blanket around her.

“Just go to sleep, Rachel.”

“Mmmkay.”

 

Rachel awoke to loud footsteps thundering up and down the hall and Dick’s holler of ‘It’s Christmas.’ She groaned, looking over to the clock and discovering it was just a little past 7:30. Her head flopped back onto her pillow and she chuckled when someone yelled at Dick to ‘shut the fuck up!’ It sounded like Jason and she wondered briefly when he’d gotten in last night. Eventually she rolled out of bed, taking her blanket with her. The wood floor was cold, but the rest of her was warm so she didn’t mind too terribly. Tim was already on his position on the couch, sipping on a cup of coffee. Rachel took her spot on the other end, covering their legs with her blanket-turned-robe. Damian and Kolby sat to Rachel’s right on the love seat. Well, Kolby sat, wrapped in a large quilt that she had found on the floor when she walked in, Damian was laying down with his head pillowed in the older girl’s lap. Dick sat in the same chair he had yesterday, though he sat properly in it this time, a huge grin on his face. Mark was at his feet, his head leaning against Dick’s knee as he nursed a mug in his hands. Jason sat in the same beanbag Mark had used yesterday, eyes bleary from lack of sleep. 

“Where are the parents?” Rachel asked, gratefully accepting a cup of tea from Alfred.

“I have informed your parents that they may remain in bed while you open presents,” he told them. “I felt it only fair that they get to sleep as long as they wish seeing as they won’t be receiving anything.”

Bruce sat heavily in one of the remaining arm chairs. “Whoever’s closest to the presents passes them out.”

Jason grumbled and reached out to grab the nearest package. He raised an eyebrow at the name on the tag.

“The baby guard got me something?” he asked.

“They wanted to be included even if they didn’t come,” Kolby explained softly, still half asleep. “Besides, there are four of you and only three of us, someone had to get a present from the young ones.” 

He peeled the paper off the box, which was oddly cubical for a gift box. He reached in, pulling out something that surprised him more than it probably should have. It was a miniature replica of his helmet, about the size of his fist, painted green and covered in shamrocks and thistles and Celtic knots, including one that was colored red, blue, and yellow. The Guard’s emblem. 

“The kids painted it themselves,” Kolby told him with a smile. 

Jason stared at his gift silently for a moment, before tossing it up and catching it with a small smile on his face.

“Tell the munchkins thanks for me.”

The next present was Tim’s, from Mark. It was a pair of sunglasses, similar in shape and style to Kolby’s visor. Rachel and Kolby looked at Mark questioningly, who grinned.

“It may or may not be pretty much an exact replica of Kolby’s visor, right down to the night vision, infrared vision, nano camera, and comlink technology. All handmade by me. You’re welcome.” 

He didn’t bother dodging the pillow thrown at him.

Kolby’s present was next, a beautiful (if a bit fantastical) portrait of her as some kind of highland warrior woman, her wings spread majestically and a robin resting on her shoulder. 

“It’s gorgeous, Dami,” she insisted, a proud smirk finding its way onto the boy’s face at her words. 

Damian’s gift was next. He stared at it when the paper was finally gone, confused.

“What…is it?”

“It’s the first three books of the Warrior series,” Rachel told him. “I used to read them all the time in elementary school.”

He scowled at her, “My reading level is far above this tripe.”

Rachel threw up her hands and shouted, “It’s written for ten year olds who love cats and you’re a ten year old who loves cats, I don’t get why you’re so pissy.”

Damian looked ready to say something else but Kolby took a look at the box and recognized the titles.

“Oh, I used to love those books,” she said, making Damian pause.

“…perhaps they have some merit.”

No one could keep themselves from rolling their eyes.

Mark was given the latest Wayne Tech netbook from Dick, which may or may not have earned the older man a squeal. The poor thing was lucky Mark didn’t have his tools with him, otherwise it’d be apart in seconds. 

Dick tore the wrapping paper off his gift, his eyes lighting up at the figurine box he found underneath. It was a large, scale model figurine of himself as Robin, scale underoos and all. 

“There was a superhero convention in Central around Halloween,” Kolby explained. “I went with Wally and saw that there. When I got your name in the lottery we did, I knew I had to get it for you.”

“It’s so detailed!” he exclaimed, turning the box so he could see the figure at more angles through the clear plastic.

“Robin’s got quite the fanbase,” she explained. “They had a whole series of ‘em, one for each of you. I even saw stuff of the Guard! Well, of me and Rachel anyway. I asked about Gwydion and the guy at the both said he was coming out next year.” 

“Sign me up, I wanna buy a mini me!” 

Rachel’s gift was last, meticulously wrapped by Tim himself. Rachel, who was much less meticulous than the man she was currently sharing a blanket with, tore the paper to shreds, dropping some on the floor for Damian’s kitten to play with. It was a cook book. A Harry Potter cook book. A Harry Potter cook book signed by JK Rowling herself! 

“I saw that and thought of you,” he said, resting his cheek in his palm as he smiled at her. “And I met Rowling at this charity event and asked her to sign it. Figured now was as good a time as any to give it to you.”

“I could kiss you!” she whispered, flipping though the book and stealing glances and dozens of recipes she just had to try.

“Wait until you’re under mistletoe for that,” Dick teased, earning him a pillow to the head. 

 

The parents joined them a while later, gathering around the main dining table for pancakes while the Robins and the Guard huddled at the kitchen table. Jason was questioning Kolby’s sanity for eating her pancakes without syrup when her cell phone buzzed in her jean pocket. It was a text from Toby, asking if they could have a work related conversation real quick. Preferably over video chat. She frowned heavily, showing the text to the others at the table. What could they possibly need to talk about on Christmas?

She ducked her head into the main dining room and asked Bruce if she could ‘borrow the really big computer in the basement’ for something. Bruce’s eyes narrowed at her tone and the slight panic in her eyes. He allowed it, shooing her off as he continued to entertain the Guard’s parents.

The guard and the Robins hurried down to the Batcave, calling up the guard’s home computer. Toby and Tabby’s faces greeted them.

“So we have an issue,” Toby said to start, not bothering with pleasantries. 

“What kind of issue?” Kolby asked cautiously.

“First off, totally not our fault,” Tabby insisted. “We were just doing our jobs.”

“What did you do?” Kolby demanded, putting on what she insisted was her leader voice (others called it her mom voice…but never to her face).

“We were patrolling last night and we came across a group of guys trying to get these girls into their van,” Toby explained. “We go in, start to do our job when…um.” He pauses, trying to figure out how to continue.

“One of these girls summons a fucking snake,” Tabby interrupts. “Like, not a pet snake she had up her sleeve or anything. This snake appeared out of fucking no where and has opaque. This other girl throws a guy into the van with out touching him. We don’t know if the other girl is a meta too, but she hasn’t left little miss telekinesis’s side since they got here.”

“Got where?” 

“Avalon. We brought them here briefly last night to make sure they were alright before taking them home. But this morning the alarm got set off and so we came over to find them here.”

Kolby groaned, rubbing her face with her hands. Why did this have to happen today of all days. It wasn’t even like she could get down there to help deal with it, or send someone in her stead. With their parents here, she was stuck. They may know about her heroism, but that didn’t mean she could use it as a get out of jail free card and just run off.

“Look, the three of us are here until Monday. Keep them from destroying shit for the weekend and then when we get back we’ll figure out what to do,” she finally said. “I’ll call in a favor with someone from the League so you can spend the day with your families. Just stay put until they get there.”

She shut off the chat and called up Hawkgirl, who owed her for the one time she took her monitor duty. Once she was sure everything was going to be alright until they got back home, she flopped back in Bruce’s giant rolling batchair. 

“Why us?” she asked, staring up at the cave ceiling. 

“Because the universe hates us?” Rachel offered.

“I’m really starting to think it does.”

 

“What did you need to use the computer for?” Rachel’s father asked when the group finally surfaced from the cave.

“Oh, I’d forgotten to let Toby and the gang back home know we’d gotten here safe so they were checking on us,” Kolby lied smoothly.

The adults didn’t seem entirely convinced, but thankfully Alfred was able to provide an excellent distraction.

“Master Richard, I do believe you and Master Mark have been caught under mistletoe.” 

The two looked up to see that there was indeed a sprig of mistletoe hanging from the door frame. A look of panic flashed across Mark’s face. He hadn’t exactly told his mother he wasn’t entirely straight yet, but a glance in her direction showed she seemed almost amused by the turn of events. He felt a finger under his chin, tugging gently at his head until he turned to face Dick (who seemed far to pleased with himself at the moment).

The kiss a brief, barely a kiss at all if Rachel’s loud protests were anything to go by. It left a tingling warmness on Mark’s lips nonetheless and he could feel his ears burning.

“Wasn’t so bad, now was it?” Dick joked.

“Adorable, Dickie bird.” Jason rolled his eyes and patted Mark’s back reassuringly. “Don’t worry, kid. He didn’t make a big show of it, which means he might actually like you.”

 

The next few days past by a bit too quickly for Rachel’s liking. She managed to get that snowball fight she wanted in, though it had to end because Damian got a little too into it and Tim nearly ended up with a black eye. Other than that it had been pretty great, they’d spent an evening in Gotham’s central part walking amongst the lights and they’d roasted marshmallows in the fireplace the night before the Guard had to leave. 

The Robins joined Bruce and Alfred in dropping off the Guard and their families at the airport, staying with the group until they passed through security. Tim held Rachel close as they said goodbye, holding on to her hand even as she started to walk away.

Despite their exhaustion from the trip, the Guard met up at Avalon later that night to discuss the situation with the three young girls. According to Sam and Hawkgirl’s reports, the trio had left at night to go home and returned in the morning. They didn’t interfere with operations but they did seem fascinated by what the teenagers were doing.

Kolby leaned back over the loft’s railing, looking down at the girls who were wrestling on the mats below. Or at least two of them were. The red head that Tabby had described summoning the snake lay atop a shorter brunette girl who was trying in vain to dislodge her from her position. The third girl, a tiny, black haired girl, sat off to the side. Luke mentioned that the smallest one hadn’t said a word the whole time she was there, but had been the one to telekinetically throw one of the attempted kidnappers. 

“Do we know what those men wanted with them?” Rachel asked.

“Not really,” Tabby admitted. “The police think they’re involved in one of those big human trafficking rings.”

Kolby frowned. She knew about those rings, a lot of them operated out of Central City because of the two major highways that intersected there. Often times they were involved in sexual slavery and the like. She hated having to deal with them.

“So what do we do with them?” Sam asked.

“They’re metahumans, right? Maybe we should take them in as member of the Guard,” Mark suggested.

“They’re a little young, don’t you think?” Kolby argued.

“Damian was ten when he started being Robin,” Rachel countered. “These girls seem to be the same age.”

Kolby frowned, she didn’t like the fact that Damian had been involved in their line of work and the violence that came with it at such a young age either, but she didn’t have control over that. She, as leader of the Guard (a position she more fell into that was appointed), had a say in this.

Before she could say anything, Tabby spoke up, “Look, obviously these girls want to be apart of this somehow. Otherwise why would they keep coming back?”

Kolby looked over her shoulder at the floor below, eyes widening when she realized the girls were no longer there. 

“Did you guys ever think about asking us what we want?” 

The group jumped, turning to the stairs to see the three girls standing there. The redhead stood out front, arms crossed and a determined expression on her face. 

“Alright,” Mark said, “what do you three want to do?”

“We wanna be super heroes too!” the girl exclaimed, smiling brightly. “We’ve got powers, so why not, right?”

The seven members of the Guard stared at the girls before exchanging glances amongst themselves. Each silently asked the others their opinions. The smallest girl winced, rubbing at her forehead. 

The heroes finally set their gaze on Kolby, who sighed heavily. 

“Alright,” she said, pushing off from the railing. “But before we start training you, we kind of need to know your names.”

“I’m Rory,” the redhead introduced herself, a grin on her face.

“Serenity,” the brunette said. She turned and pulled lightly on the smallest girl’s arm. “This is Kira.”

“Can Kira not speak for herself?” Mark asked.

“I can,” Kira muttered, raising her gaze from the floor to stare at Mark. 

“It’s hard for her to think of what to said over the noise,” Serenity explained.

“Noise?” Luke echoed.

“She must be telepathic too,” Tabby reasoned.

“If she can’t hear her own thoughts over the thoughts of others, she might need some help,” Toby mumbled, worried. 

Kolby smiled reassuringly at Kira, “Don’t worry, I know someone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize it's a little early for what amounts to a Christmas special but to be fair I wrote this back in September and it makes sense given the time line so Christmas special it is.


	5. Kira and the Martian

Little Kira Lister stood stock still in the middle of Avalon. Tabby had just gotten word from Kolby that the League was allowing the young psychic up to the Watch Tower so she could train with someone special. She hadn’t been told who, but she had been told she was going to get beamed up soon. 

“Here it comes,” Tabby warned and Kira squeaked nervously and squeezed her eyes shut when she felt the tingling start.

She held her breath and tried to remain as still as possible, even after the tingling stopped. Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of a good natured laugh. She looked up to see Kolby, fully dressed in her Morrigan costume. 

“You don’t have to hold your breath, little one,” she teased.

Kira blushed a little at the endearment. Morrigan had taken to calling her and the others her ‘little ones’ shortly after they joined the Guard. Well, join was a strong word. Since they began training under the guard was a more accurate statement. 

Morrigan strode onto the teleporter platform, gently gripping Kira’s shoulder as she led her down. 

“C’mon, we’re going to go meet someone special.”

She led Kira through the metal halls of the Watchtower, greeting friends as they passed. The place was bigger than Kira expected, more crowded. The farther they went the more voices echoed around her head. It was starting to get painful. 

They stopped at a door like any other and Kolby knocked a little rhythm on it. A deep voice told them to enter, the door sliding open for them. The room was fairly small, a bed against the far wall under the window that faced the Earth, a mishmash of rugs covered the floor in deep reds and warm violets, two low chairs sat in the middle of the room and another, taller chair sat off to the side near another door. Sitting in one of the low chairs was a tall, green skinned man with red eyes that Kira could feel staring through her soul. She shrunk back behind Kolby, who smiled fondly at her.

“Kira, this is J’onn J’onzz, also known as the Martian Manhunter,” she introduced. “He’s going to help you control your telepathy.”

The Martian stood from his chair and walked towards the two girls. He stopped just before them and Kira realized how much the man towered over her and Kolby. His face was impassive, which made Kira nervous. She jumped back when J’onn lifted his hand for her to shake. 

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Kira,” J’onn said slowly. “Morrigan has told me much about you.”

Kira looked up at Kolby questioningly, looking for direction. Kolby nodded towards J’onn’s hand, so Kira reached out slowly and took it in her own. Or she tried to. The Martian’s hand positively dwarfed hers. The texture intrigued her, it was almost too smooth to be skin. But the most amazing thing was she couldn’t hear his thoughts, even with bodily contact. The only thoughts she could here were Morrigan’s hopes that J’onn could help her. 

J’onn released her hand and motioned towards the two low chairs in the middle of the room. Morrigan asked if she should leave, but J’onn told her that her staying would help Kira understand the progress she was making, so Kolby took a seat in the chair off to the side. Kira sat across from J’onn, who held out both of his hands to her, palms up.

“We will be entering into your mindscape to figure out the source of the problem,” he explained. “But in order for me to join you there, we must have some form of physical contact.”

Kira inhaled deeply to calm her nerves and reached out to lay her hands in J’onn’s palms. She closed her eyes and turned her focus inward, the sounds of the Watchtower fading away.

 

J’onn didn’t expect to be surprised by the form Kira’s mindscape took, but he was. He stood in what looked like an apartment. Behind him was an entry way and kitchen. Before him was a pair of couches and a small coffee table covered in picture frames. He picked up one to find a photo of Morrigan and her original guard, then another with a group of four teenagers he assumed were the second Guard that Morrigan talked about so much, then another that showed Kira with two other girls. The sound of movement caught his attention and he set the photo back down and moved towards the sound. Just on the other side of the couches was a small staircase leading down, and in front of a large window that J’onn recognized as a clock face was a huge pile of pillows and cushions. Kira sat in the pile, gazing out the window at a large tower. 

“That’s where the voices come from,” Kira told him, not moving her gaze from the tower.

J’onn took in the view of the tower, noticing the thrown open windows. He could hear Morrigan’s thoughts streaming through them, but there was nothing but blackness inside. The big hand on the clock ticked once. 

“Can you destroy it?” Kira asked, turning to look up at the Martian.

“No,” J’onn said plainly. “That tower is a representation of your power, which is an essential part of you. Even if one could destroy it, the damage to your person would be too great for it to be worth it.”

“Even if I want it gone?”

J’onn floated down and settled himself beside the young girl. “Morrigan brought you to me to help you control your telepathy and that is what I shall do. You forget, this is your mind. You may change it as you see fit.”

Kira maneuvered herself to sit facing J’onn, looking up at him expectantly.

“Mental barriers are easy to build and tear down,” J’onn explained. “Learning how to create them is essential for any telepath, especially a young one who’s powers are still developing.”

He told her to imagine insulation, that purple foam he’d seen when Superman turned the TV in the cafeteria to the home improvement channel. Perhaps her tower did not have enough of it and that was why the voices were so loud. By adding insulation to the walls of her clock tower home, she could muffle the voices. 

Kira tried her best to imagine it, the sand colored bricks coming down around her and the spaces behind them filling with that weird purple foam. Little by little, she could hear Kolby’s thoughts fade. She felt exhaustion creep up on her, she hadn’t expected this to be so tiring. 

“That’s enough,” J’onn told her, reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder. “You have made excellent progress, but it would be best not to exhaust you so soon. It is time to rejoin the physical world.”

And just like that Kira’s eyes fluttered open and she found herself back in J’onn’s room. Kolby looked up from her phone, smiling at her. 

“How’d it go?” she asked.

“Very well,” J’onn answered, standing from his chair and extending a hand to Kira to help her up. “She has begun forming the proper mental barriers. With time, she will be able to completely block other’s thoughts from invading her mind. After that we can work on other things.”

“That’s good,” Kolby sighed in relief. “Thank you J’onn, this means a lot.”

 

“Is this…Mars?”

Kira stood beside J’onn in his own mindscape. After several weeks of building up the barriers Kira needed to keep herself sane, J’onn had decided it would be best to train her in other telepathic techniques, including the ability to navigate through the mindscapes of others.

“Yes, as it was at its peak,” he answered, smiling fondly at the alien architecture and red dirt.

Kira stooped down to run her fingers through the coppery red dirt beneath their feet. “It reminds me of the red clay in Texas.”

J’onn couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Perhaps I should visit sometime.”

Kira smiled at the man as she stood. She gazed at the structures around them, all rounded and made of an unusual grey stone. It was surprisingly lush, green plants and gardens were everywhere. It was gorgeous. 

A sudden, heavy sadness rushed her heart. Loss and a feeling of irreversible loneliness overwhelmed her and tears spilled from her eyes. Her breath hitched and J’onn turned to look at her. Shock etched itself onto his face when he saw the fat, heavy tears drip from her chin and onto the ground. 

“I-I don’t know what happened,” Kira hiccupped. “I just…I just felt really sad all of a sudden. Oh, god.” She turned her gaze to J’onn, understanding dawning on her. “You’re so lonely, aren’t you?”

“You’re an empath.” It was a statement, not a question.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“No, I am sorry,” J’onn said quietly, reaching out to rest a comforting hand on Kira’s shoulder. “I did not realize the extent of your abilities. By bringing you to my mindscape I have unwittingly opened you up to the deepest and most painful feelings I have experienced. The fault is mine.”

“No, I mean, I’m sorry for your loss,” Kira clarified. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose everything like this. I don’t know how you can stand it.”

“Time has helped,” J’onn explained, reaching out to wipe away the tears on Kira’s cheek. “This happened more than a thousand Earth years ago. The pain is still there, yes, but it has dulled over the years. Being with the Justice League, being given a new purpose, it keeps my mind off the loss. Mars was my home, yes, but Earth is my home now and I cannot forget that.”

A tiny glimmer of happiness wormed its way into Kira’s heart. Happiness, with a hint of hope and familial love. This was J’onn’s happiness she felt. She wanted to bottle it up and keep it for some dark and hopeless night. 

“Perhaps we should stop here for today,” J’onn suggested.

Kira shook her head and scrubbed at her tear stained cheeks. “No, I’m okay. Let’s keep going.”

 

“There’s not much you can do for her empathy, is there?” Kolby asked, just after Kira had been sent home.

“Unfortunately, no. I myself am not an empath, and there are none in the League.”

“Seems like a rather unfortunate oversight.”

“Indeed.”

Kolby shrugged, leaning back against the teleporter’s control board as she spoke, “Still, I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for Kira. She’s so much happier now that she doesn’t have hundreds of thoughts that aren’t her own bouncing around in her head. She’s more talkative now, more open. Scathatch says it’s done wonders for her physical training too.”

“I was happy to help,” J’onn insisted mildly.

“It’ll be a shame when there’s nothing else you can teach her,” Kolby said blithely. “She’s grown very fond of you.”

“And I am fond of her.” 

Kolby smirked. “Oh, I know.”

J’onn looked at her curiously. Kolby caught his gaze and her smirk just grew wider. She pushed herself off the control panel, careful not to hit any buttons along the way, and left, mentioning how she was catching a ride back to Central with Diana. She slipped out the door, bidding him farewell with a salute and leaving J’onn alone with his thoughts.


	6. Lullabies for a Robin and a Blackbird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starting this week I will only be updating the Morrigan series once a week. There are two reasons for this: 1) I will be participating in this year's NaNoWriMo so that will be taking up most of my writing time, 2) I am slowly creeping towards the end of what I've already written for the story. So I will be updating the series on Monday only for now on. Thank you for your support!

“You’re going back to Gotham this summer?”

The question wasn’t unexpected. Kolby looked up at Wally from across the table. It was Thursday night and they were out to dinner, a bag of Kolby’s clothes sitting underneath the table. Kolby managed to work it so she didn’t have classes on Friday her spring semester, so instead of sitting around her dorm, she spent the weekend with Wally. It meant she was in classes until 5 on Tuesday, but she didn’t mind too terribly. 

“Yeah, I do an internship with Wayne Enterprises every summer,” she explained. “If I do it through my junior year of college, I’m guaranteed a job when I graduate. Plus, it pays better than any job I could get back home for the summer.”

“Good on Batsy for paying his interns,” Wally muttered, poking dejectedly at his food.

“Aw, Wally, don’t be like that,” Kolby said, leaning forward and taking his hand in hers. “You can always come and visit. And Central City is closer to Gotham than my hometown is, maybe I can fly out and visit you sometimes.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Wally agreed, still sounding dejected.

“Wally, what did you expect me to do over the summer? I can’t stay in the dorm all summer.”

“You could stay with me.”

“I don’t think my parents would be up for that.”

“But they let you stay with Bruce Wayne?”

“They…don’t know I live with the Waynes during my internship. And besides, even if they did, Rachel and Mark do the same so it’s not as big of a deal.”

Wally pouted, arms folded and leaned back in his chair, gazing out the window. He didn’t want Kolby to leave Central, the people were just getting used to the Morrigan showing up. And he liked their weekend sleepovers. But he couldn’t stop her from leaving and it would be wrong to try in the first place.

“You promise Batsy won’t mind me coming to visit?”

“If he does, he’ll have to deal with me.”

 

“What is West doing here?” Damian seethed.

It was a rare Sunday morning when the Waynes were up and aware enough to have a family breakfast. The Bat family and their guests were all sitting around the kitchen table as Alfred fixed his famous crepes. All of them, except Kolby and Wally, who stood in the kitchen’s archway. They stood close, holding hands and speaking softly with each other. Damian wanted to puke.

“Because Kolby’s here and he has a right to see his girlfriend?” Mark replied, wondering if the question was rhetorical.

“Doesn’t he have a city to take care of?” Damian was clearly pouting now, arms crossed as he sunk down in his chair. 

“Pretty sure he’s leaving in like, two minutes, calm down baby bat,” Rachel teased, patting Damian’s head only to have her hand swatted at.

Sure enough, Wally bent down to give Kolby a quick kiss before speeding off. Damian perked up as Kolby joined the rest of them at the table, sliding to the chair next to him. 

“So,” Dick drawled, “How’s Wally?”

Kolby blushed, stuttering a bit as she spoke, “Oh, h-he’s fine. Said he’s gonna come back tonight to help with patrol.”

Damian groaned loudly and slammed his head on the table. Kolby looked at him with concern.

“You okay, Dami?”

“Peachy.”

 

Flash returned later that evening as promised, after the sun had set over Gotham and the Bats were preparing for a busy night. There had been a string of armed robberies the past week, mostly hitting upscale jewelry shops. Batman had triangulated a pattern and was fairly certain they were going to hit a certain one tonight.

“Dibs on partnering with Morrigan!” Flash said, wrapping an arm around Kolby’s shoulder.

“No, you’ll be patrolling the streets with Red Robin and Batgirl in case any other crimes occur. We’ll need your speed to keep up with things while the rest of us deal with the robbers. Morrigan will be paired with Robin.”

Damian grinned deviously at Wally from Kolby’s other side, sticking his tongue out at Wally when the older hero glanced at him. Flash moved to possibly strangle the little shit but ran into the Kolby instead, who gave him what Flash would describe as a perfect impersonation of the bat glare. He was vindicated, however, when Kolby turned and bopped Damian on the head. 

“Enough!” Bruce snapped. “Let’s go.”

 

Robin and Morrigan watched from the rooftop of the apartment building across the street from the shop. They were to catch the thieves should they manage to escape Donn and Gwydion, who were to ambush them inside with Batman. 

There was the sound of a struggle and Damian and Morrigan leapt down to the street below just as three robbers burst out the front door. They don’t bother wondering where Batman and the others are as the robbers charge them. Robin captured the first of the robbers with a well thrown bola, the ropes wrapping around the man’s legs. Morrigan threw lightning at another, satisfied when the man fell to the ground twitching. The third one alluded them. Where the hell had he gone? Then Morrigan heard the sound of a gun cocking. 

“DAMI!”

Ten shots fired. Four missed. Six hit their target. 

Or they would have if Kolby hadn’t thrown herself around Damian, shielding him from harm with her wings. 

She held him tight in her arms. In her shaking arms. Her knees buckled. Her breathing was heavy. Damian could feel the wetness of her tears, but she refused to vocalize her pain. 

Flash was four blocks away when he heard the gun shots. He arrived just as the last shot was fired, punching the man in the face and knocking him unconscious. Batman and the rest of the guard finally made it out of the store, shocked at the sight that met them.

Six bullet wounds. Four on her left wing and two on her right. Black feathers stained red by blood. Kolby still hadn’t let go of Damian. She loosened her grip just enough so she could look Damian in the eye. He stared up at her in fear. She smiled reassuringly at him.

“It’s okay, Dami,” she whispered, her breath hitching as she wobbled. “I won’t lose you again.”

The last thing she heard before blacking out was Damian’s desperate cry of ‘Beloved.’

 

“Can’t you help her?” Rachel asked Alfred. The butler did have some medical knowledge, and used it on Bruce and the others many times in the past.

“I can’t treat wings, Miss Ollivier,” Alfred admitted. “I’m sorry, but this is beyond my ability.”

“Well, what if she retracted them?” Mark asked. “I mean, they’re magic. Shouldn’t they just heal on their own inside her?”

“We don’t know what it will do to her body,” Bruce argued. “The wounds my transfer to her human flesh and do more damage then they’ve already done. And even if they don’t do that, who knows if the wings will just heal on their own.”

“So what are we gonna do?” Flash demanded. He hadn’t stopped pacing since they’d gotten back. 

Damian stared at Kolby, laid out on a cross shaped examination table with her wings spread out. She was hooked up to an IV of anesthetic and another one of blood to keep her from bleeding out. 

“Tim is calling Zatanna,” Bruce informed them, “Hopefully she can do something with her magic.” 

Rachel and Mark nearly jumped out of their skin when Zatanna just ‘poof’ed in a few minutes later. She inhaled sharply at the sight of Kolby’s mangled wings. 

“What happened?” she demanded, turning on Bruce and getting right up in his face in a way that none of the Guard had the guts to do.

“She protected me,” Damian said, his voice quiet and hoarse. Like he’d been crying even though he hadn’t shed a tear.

Zatanna’s immediately dropped her aggressive stance and moved to stand near the table. She frowned heavily, making note of each injury.

“This won’t be instantaneous,” she warned. “But once the spell starts, it’ll see it’s way to the end even if I leave. But she shouldn’t be moved until the spell stops.”

The group nodded in understanding, standing back so Zatanna could do her job. Save for Damian and Wally, who only seemed to move closer to Kolby’s unconscious body.

Zatanna raised her hands and spoke in a strange echoy voice that Rachel just sort of assumed all magic people knew how to make. “Sgniw reh laeh!”

Six glowing orbs flew from Zatanna’s finger tips and rested at each bullet hole. Kolby’s wings twitched and a hiss of pain escaped her mouth before she fell still once again.

“How long will it take?” Wally asked, continuing to pace back and forth at super speed.

“I have no idea. Hours, probably,” Zatanna admitted. “But it should continue on it’s own until she’s completely healed. Call me if it stops suddenly before then.”

Another poof and the magician was gone. Silence filled the cave until Batman snapped at Flash for pacing the way he was. He was going to dig a trench into the floor if he kept up his pacing. The clock on the bat computer read 4 in the morning. It was Monday again.

“What do we tell her supervisor?” Mark wondered, rubbing at the back of his neck. 

“Any thing you want,” Tim said. “If they have an issue with it tell them to talk to me. That’ll shut them up.”

“Someone’s gotta stay with Kolby, though,” Rachel reminded them. “In case she wakes up or something.”

“I’ll stay,” Wally offered.

“No,” Damian refused. “You have to get back to Central. You have a day job to take care of and a city to look after. We’ll call you when Morgan is well enough to be up and about.”

“But…”

“Do you really think Morgan would be happy knowing you abandoned your duty to watch her sleep?” Damian questioned harshly. 

Wally stopped, frowning heavily. Unfortunately, Damian was right. Kolby would be furious that Wally skipped out on his responsibilities because of her. Kolby was exceptionally good at keeping his feet on the ground when his head wanted nothing more but to drift off into the clouds. 

“Go home, West. Get some rest, take care of your city. That’s what Morgan would want you to do.”

Wally nodded and moved to run off, only to turn back and reach towards Kolby. He repeated the process before squeezing his eyes shut and speeding off. 

“I’ll stay with Morgan,” Damian told the remaining heroes, his tone leaving little room for argument. “The rest of you have responsibilities to deal with today. I do not.”

Bruce nodded and turned without another word towards the stairs leading out of the cave, Tim and Barbara not far behind. Mark and Rachel lingered for a time, but even they had to leave and attempt to get some rest before they were thrown into the corporate world once again.

Damian waited until the rest were gone before he pulled a chair up to Kolby’s side. He took her hand in a light grip, careful of her IVs, and set his gaze on her face. Her expression was pained despite the anesthetics. Damian assumed it’d be much worse without them. He reached up to brush her hair out of her sweat slicked face. His mind wandered back to when he had first been revived, just under a year ago now. He had been plagued by nightmares, but Kolby had been there to soothe him back into peaceful sleep with a soft and slow song that wasn’t quite a lullaby but worked just as well. He couldn’t remember the words to the song, but perhaps another one could work just as well.

_Black bird singing in the dead of night_  
Take these broken wings and learn to fly  
All your life  
You’ve been only waiting for this moment to arise 

 

It took something like ten hours for Zatanna’s spell to finish healing Kolby’s wings. Damian had lost count after the first four or so, but it didn’t matter since Kolby didn’t wake up even after the spell dissipated. Dick came down to help carry Kolby up to her bedroom, knowing that leaving her on the examination table would only lead to her having a sore back. Her wings had still yet to return to her body. 

She slept heavily that night despite having slept all day as well. Damian sat at her bedside again but even he couldn’t keep exhaustion from kicking his ass straight to dreamland. He woke the next morning to the sound of movement. Kolby sat up in bed, wings shifting as she held her head like she was trying to recall the last 48 hours. 

“Does your head hurt?”

Kolby didn’t jump like he expected her to. She moved slowly, turning her head to look at Damian with unfocused eyes. 

“No, not really. I’m just…tired.”

“You’ve slept for over 24 hours,” Damian informed her. “But you did lose quite a bit of blood. Come. You should eat.”

Kolby slid from the bed. Her movements were stiff and slow. She pulled her wings in around her, noticing the dried blood in her feathers. She grimaced at the sight.

“I should shower first.”

“I’ll wait for you outside.”

“Don’t bother, this might take a while.” Kolby extended her wings in emphasis, making sure Damian got a good look at the mess in her feathers.

Damian stared at the blood stained wings, swallowing thickly. He nodded and left the room without another word. 

 

Kolby padded softly down the stairs towards the kitchen. She felt infinitely better now that her wings were free from dried blood and her oily hair had been washed. Despite the fact she should probably be ready to go to work, she was dressed casually. She hummed softly to herself, singing the chorus out loud as she entered the kitchen.

_Black bird singing in the dead of night_  
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see  
All your life  
You’ve been only waiting for this moment to be free. 

Damian choked on his eggs. Did Morgan remember him singing to her? No, she couldn’t have. She was unconscious the whole time. He coughed violent and Dick patted him on the back with a concerned look in his eye.

“What’s with the concert, Kolby?” Rachel asked.

“Hmmm? Oh, I don’t know,” Kolby admitted as she took her seat next to Damian. “It’s just stuck in my head for some reason. You okay, Dami?”

“Peachy.” 

“Hey Kolby,” Tim spoke up from his seat next to Rachel, “Why are your wings still out? Do they hurt?”

“No, I just…felt like keeping them out,” Kolby said, glancing back at her wings as they shifted closer to her body. “Is that weird?”

“I guess not, it’s just unusual to see you with your wings out. You’re normally so protective of them.”

Kolby just hummed, running her fingers through her still wet hair. She wasn’t entirely sure why she didn’t retract her wings either, it just felt right to have them out right now. She stared at the table cloth, her eyes unfocused.

“Perhaps Miss Kolby should remain at the manor today,” Alfred suggested as he placed a plate of food before her. 

“I agree,” Bruce said, fixing Kolby with a stare.

“You seem really out of it, Kolby, are you sure you’re okay?” Mark asked, leaning closer to his friend.

Kolby wanted to nod but knew it probably wasn’t entirely true. She did feel weird and wasn’t entirely sure it was because of her blood loss from the day before. She sighed heavily and shrugged. Her stomach growled and she remembered that Alfred had given her food. She started shoveling scrambled eggs and sausage links into her mouth. She thought that she should call Wally, let him know she was okay. After breakfast she’d call him, but she’d probably have to insist he’d stay in Central until the end of his work day. He’d zip right over if she didn’t. She loved his eagerness, she really did, but he tended to forget his other obligations which meant she’d have to remind him. It made her feel more like his mother or sister instead of his girlfriend sometimes.

 

The conversation didn’t take terribly long. Wally started out insisting that he’d be over as soon as he could only for Kolby to stop him in his tracks. He then promised he’d be over after the end of his shift at the forensics lab, which Kolby was much more open to. 

That left her the whole day practically alone in the manor. Sure Damian and Alfred were there, but they were busy with their own responsibilities. She spent most of her time just wandering about the manor, finding rooms she never knew existed. Late into the afternoon she found a music room that housed an old grand piano. She remembered the lessons she used to take as a child, before she had to stop because the school didn’t count her twice a week lessons for her fine arts credit and she started playing the cello instead. She hadn’t touched a piano in years. 

She sat at the piano, touching a singular key and smiling as the high, clear note echoed in the empty air. She tried to remember the songs she used to play at her lessons. Her teacher had been pretty young and not the biggest fan of the old classics so all the songs she’d learned had been more contemporary. She couldn’t remember the name of the song or the composer, but she could remember the notes and the lyrics that her teacher would sing along as she played. 

The song was familiar and nostalgic and she lost herself in the moment. It didn’t surprise her (though it probably should have) when she didn’t notice Wally arrive at the manor. He was unusually quiet when he found her, waiting until she had lifted her hands from the keys before greeting her. He came to stand behind her and his hands glided over her feathers. Gentle. Reverent. He bent down and placed a kiss between her shoulder blades. He didn’t often get to see Kolby’s wings up close like this. They were gorgeous of the warm light of the fading sun that shown through the window, violet at times and deep blue at others but never completely black. 

He asked her if she was feeling better and she told him she was. He asked her to play another song for him, since he’d missed most of the other one. Kolby searched her mind for another one she could remember, glad that most of the pop songs she’d learned were fairly repetitive and easy to memorize and reproduce, even years later. She sung along softly, almost hoping that Wally couldn’t hear her. He probably could, but it didn’t really matter that much. He was warm against her back, bare in the halter top she had worn that day. She almost abandoned her song halfway through, she wanted to turn and hold him so much. Wanted to assure him that she was indeed still here and in one piece. But he wanted to hear her play, so she’d wait until the song was done. 

 

Wally stayed for dinner, which wasn’t a surprise. He also stayed the night, not so subtly sneaking into Kolby’s room after Alfred and the others had gone to bed. Kolby didn’t see the need, but she wasn’t about to argue. It was easier to cuddle now that she’d finally retracted her wings, feeling much more normal now then she had that morning.

Something woke her up in the middle of the night. Just a strange feeling that something was wrong. She sat up and looked towards her door, waking Wally up in the process.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled, one hand removing itself from her hips to rub at his face.

“Probably nothing, but I’m gonna go check on something. Go back to sleep, Wally, I’ll be right back.”

She kissed his cheek lightly and slipped out of bed, padding quietly across hardwood floors. She left her room and turned to the room on her right. Damian’s room. She pushed the door open gently, peering in to find Damian sitting up and wide awake in his bed. He stared at her as she entered the room and made her way over to his bed.

“What’s wrong, Dami? Did you have another nightmare?” she asked quietly, sitting on his bed and letting him lay his head in her lap.

He nodded, as if admitting it out loud would be embarrassing for him. Kolby chuckled softly, running her fingers through his hair in a way she knew calmed him down. She settled more comfortably on his bed and began to sing to him like she always did when nightmares struck.

_In the light of the sun_  
Is there anyone?  
Oh, it has begun… 

“No!” Damian snapped. “Not that one.”

Kolby’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why not that one?”

“Because you played it for him.” The way Damian practically spat the pronoun took Kolby aback. Then she realized what had happened. He must have come across her and Wally in the music room earlier that day. She frowned heavily.

“Do you love him?”

Kolby knew she couldn’t lie to Damian. For one he’d catch it and for another she felt like she shouldn’t have to. She’d always made a big deal about letting the boy know that she cared about him and trusted him, and lying to him would just ruin that sentiment.

She took a deep breath and answered as truthfully as she could. “I don’t know.”

Damian seemed to want to ask more questions, but apparently decided against it. He settled against her once again, eyes closed, waiting for her to sing him to sleep with a new song. One she hadn’t sang to him as well.

_Hold me down, sweet and low, little girl  
Hold me down, sweet and low, and I will carry you home_


	7. Hurt and Comfort (The Long Game part 2)

Kolby probably should have realized before she started college how time consuming an architecture major would be, especially when you coupled it with a history major as well. Despite her academic work load, she still had her Justice League duties to attend to. And that included monitor duty at least once a week. She was lucky that she was usually paired up with one or two other people (one of the perks of the Justice League’s expanded roster), because then she could bring her school work and listen for particularly troubling news. Of course, that meant pairing off with Mark was probably a bad idea, because he’d do the same damn thing and nothing would ever be reported.

Her friend had been nominated for membership by Green Arrow, who had been working pretty frequently with Gwydion since Mark moved to Star City for school. College was a busy time for most students, but doubly so when you had a rather demanding job with sporadic hours like Mark and Kolby did. Someone had mentioned bringing Donn in too, but Rachel had shot that down pretty fast. There was no way she could keep up with her college work load (considering her insane decision of double majoring in Linguistics and Biology) and League duties. Besides, she was already part of a team, and the Celtic Guard had her loyalty first.

All in all, the first Guard were fucking tired all. The goddamn. Time. Sometimes Mark and Kolby didn’t go back down to Earth and fell asleep anywhere they can on the Watchtower. Hawk Girl is pretty sure she’d found Mark asleep on a pile of spare sparring mats in the gym one time. Wally knew Kolby had slept in his room several times (he wasn’t entirely sure how she knew the code, since he never told her). In fact, that was where Kolby was heading right now to sleep away the exhaustion that had settled into her bones. 

She trudged along the Watchtower’s metal corridors, bag slung over her shoulder. She heard familiar voices up ahead, which was odd because Damian didn’t usually come up to the Watchtower, not since that one time when he had his powers a few summers back. Who was he talking to?

 

Wally didn’t know why Damian had stopped him in the middle of the hall, but he had a feeling it wasn’t for anything good.

“What do you want, kid?” the speedster asked, his voice impatient. 

“I just figured you should know something,” the small boy told him, a smirk on his face that made Wally nervous. “I spoke with Morgan some time ago, you see. I asked her something and I think her answer will be of interest to you.”

“Get on with it, Damian,” Wally snapped.

Damian’s smirk grew wider as he spoke, “I asked her if she loved you.

“She didn’t say yes.”

“DAMIAN!”

Wally and Damian turned at the scream, seeing a furious Kolby at the end of the hall. Damian paled, he’d never scared by Kolby before but now he understood what it was like to meet her in a dark alley. She marched towards him and he could see one brown eye turn crimson. 

“Wally,” she spoke slowly, a forced calmness in her voice, “Go to your room, I’ll meet you there in a moment.”

Wally stared hard at Kolby, searching her expression for something to tell him what Damian said wasn’t true. She met his gaze, her right eye fluctuating between a deep bloody crimson and a dark ocean blue. And once, just once, he saw it flash gold. Fear. She was afraid. Wally swallowed thickly and sped off down the hall.

There was silence between Dick’s two protégés for a moment as Kolby tried to collect herself and put into words just how disappointed and angry she was with Damian. 

Damian’s voice was small sounding as he called out to her. “Beloved?”

A wave of rage over took Kolby and she turned faster than she thought she could and struck Damian across the face with the back of her hand. She’d never hit Damian before. Not really. But she could hear Badb roaring in her mind as the rage swelled inside her and she couldn’t completely control it anymore. 

“DON’T Call me that,” she screamed. “How could you do that? Why? I don’t. I trusted you! I opened myself up to you and told you something important that I’ve been struggling with and you threw it in my face. And for what? Because you’re jealous? Is that it? Because that’s fucked up! It’s so fucked up, Damian, do you understand that? Wally is one of the best things that’s ever happened to me and if it’s ruined because of you I…”

Her vision was blurry. Tears rolled down her cheeks in waterfalls of betrayal and anger and sorrow. She didn’t know what to do. She had to go to Wally, to explain everything. She inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself enough so that she wouldn’t scream herself hoarse. 

“You need to leave, right now,” she hissed at Damian. “Get off the Watchtower. If I see you again anytime soon I think I might actually hurt you.”

She turned away from him and left. She couldn’t tell if he was going to apologize but she didn’t want to hear it right now. She had to find Wally. She prayed he went to his room like she asked him to. She punched the code into the keypad, only for it to beep obnoxiously at her. He’d changed it. 

She pounded on the door. “Dammit, Wally, open up. Please! I need to talk to you!”

He didn’t answer and Kolby felt the panic tighten in her throat. She pounded harder on the door, resting her forehead against the cold metal and trying to ignore the pain throbbing in her hand.

“Please!” She didn’t care that she was begging. “Wally, don’t lock me out right now. I need to talk to you. Please, goddammit!”

She heard the beep, backing away just in time as the door slid open. Wally stood just on the other side of the threshold. He wasn’t smiling. Kolby couldn’t read his face and that scared her. 

“Can I come in?” she asked, her voice small, tired, and she could feel her exhaustion setting in again.

Wally hesitated, Kolby could tell, before stepping aside. Kolby entered, acting quickly in case Wally changed his mind. The room was dark, the only light being what was coming in through the window (which wasn’t much). Kolby gathered her courage and turned to face Wally, trying desperately to meet his eyes but Wally wouldn’t look at her.

“God, I had hoped this wouldn’t be something we had to talk about,” Kolby sighed heavily, running a hand through her hair. “I…I’m going to be as honest as I can possibly be, but I need you to listen. Okay?”

Wally just nodded, his gaze on the floor and Kolby hated this so much.

“Damian technically didn’t lie. It’s true when he asked me if I loved you I didn’t tell him yes…Wally look at me,” she pleaded, reaching up to hold his face with her hands. She waited until he finally looked her in the eye and she felt like crying all over again at the pain she saw in his eyes. “But I also didn’t tell him no.”

Confusion flickered over Wally’s face. “What do you mean?”

Kolby pulled back, only to have Wally catch her hand in his. She swallowed down her fear and tried to explain the best she could.

“I’m demiromantic and demisexual. Love at first sight doesn’t happen for me. I need to form a bond with someone before I can even start to feel romantic attraction towards them. And even then it doesn’t always happen.”

She moved to sit on the bed, pulling Wally to sit next to her. She could see the questions in his eyes. At least he didn’t look so damn sad anymore.

“As of right now, I do not feel romantic attraction towards you,” Kolby explained. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t.”

“How will you know if you do?” Wally asked, scooting closer to her. So close their thighs touched. “Have you ever felt it before?”

“Once,” Kolby admitted, squeezing Wally’s hand tight. “There was this guy in my orchestra. We were stand partners for like three years. It wasn’t until that last year I started to want to be with him in the romantic sense. And then he quit orchestra and I never saw him again, so there’s that.”

“So…what? You’re just waiting to see if you fall in love with me?”

Kolby hated how that sounded, she really did. “It’s not like I hate being with you. I love spending time with you. I like being held by you, and kissing you, and just being with you. I just…it doesn’t have to be romantic for me to enjoy it, I guess. 

“I want to fall in love with you, Wally. I just don’t know if it’s going to happen. But I’m willing to wait and see.”

Wally smiled at her and Kolby felt relief wash over her as he pulled her into a tight hug.

“Then I’m willing to wait, too.”

 

Kolby didn’t know when they fell asleep, but she woke to the sound of her comlink going crazy. She grabbed her visor and slipped it over her tired eyes and opened the link.

“What’s up?”

“Kolby, thank god I got you.” It was Tabitha. “We got a ping. Looks like Blair might be in Metropolis.”

“What makes you say that?” Kolby was listening now, even if she didn’t move from her position on the bed. Not like she could move anyway, not with Wally wrapped around her like he was.

“There was recent activity on the family’s bank account in Metropolis, but her family haven’t left the state in months,” Tabitha explained. “It was an ATM withdrawal, so we can rule out hacker activity.” 

“Right, I’ll pass the warning on to Superman and Spectrum,” she promised. “Keep me updated.”

She cut the link and set her visor back on the window sill above her head. She shifted, turning to face away from Wally, who groaned.

“Hey, is Superman still here? Or Spectrum?” she asked, hoping Wally was awake enough to answer.

“Nah, they went home hours ago. Won’t be back up here until Tuesday I think.”

“Guess I gotta go to Metropolis,” Kolby mumbled. “What time is it there, anyway?”

“Idunno. Nine?”

Kolby thought for a moment before turning back around and snuggling closer to Wally’s warm body. “Fuck it, they can wait.”

 

Kolby sat on the edge of the Daily Planet’s roof, staring out over the city as she waited for Superman and Spectrum to show up. Why Clark always insisted on the Daily Planet, Kolby would never know. Yeah, he worked there but you’d think he’d pick anywhere else because of that. Also, was it just her or was Metropolis just as fucking bright as its Boy Scout hero?

“Morrigan.” Kolby looked up to see Superman and Spectrum approaching. 

“Superman. Spectrum.”

Clark insisted on floating in front of her while Spectrum landed daintily next to her. Oh, the perks of flying without wings.

“So what did you need to tell us?” Aria asked, dropping down to sit next to Kolby.

“I’m not sure how much you know about the Garden Council situation, Aria, but I’m sure Supes here remembers them.” Kolby waited for a nod from Clark before continuing on. “Druantia recently found some evidence that one of the escaped girls is in the Metropolis area.”

“Which one?” Superman asked, a concerned frown finding its way onto his face.

“Blair Thomas. Likelihood is she’ll be working under her alias of Lily of the Valley,” Kolby explained. “She was second in command of the Council, which makes her probably the second most dangerous member.”

“After the leader?” Spectrum guessed.

“No, after Cherry Blossom,” Morrigan corrected with a shake of her head. “Taylor is too smart to be dangerous. She knows she’s better off laying low and not getting into anymore trouble, despite her threats to the contrary when the Guard first apprehended them a few years back. But Sable…Sable holds grudges and doesn’t let them go. These girls escaped months ago and the only one to take any major action against us was Sable. She hasn’t shown up against since, but that only makes me more concerned.”

Kolby’s eyebrows furrowed in frustration. Everything was moving far too slowly. They couldn’t track the escaped Council members like she wanted to and the longer Blair and the others were out in the world, the more she worried about what they were planning. 

Aria reached out to set a reassuring hand on Kolby’s shoulder. “We’ll keep our eyes peeled. And don’t worry. I’m sure whatever they’ve got planned, we’ll be able to stop them.”

Kolby smiled, remembering why she liked Aria so much. She was so damn optimistic, even if she hid it well behind her sarcasm and enough salt to fill the oceans twice over.

“Thanks, Aria.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small photograph. “This is the most recent picture we have of her. Call me first if you find anything. And if you can’t reach me get in touch with Druantia back in Avalon and she’ll get the gang moving. It’s what she’s good at.”

 

“So how are the little ones doing?” Kolby asked, sitting on her and Wally’s couch as she skyped with Rachel, Mark, and Sam back home.

“Well enough,” Sam said with a shrug. “They have issues focusing on the task at hand, especially Rory. Kira’s been doing better since you started taking her to see J’onn, but there are still things she can’t quite keep out.”

“Like what?” Rachel asked, looking up from the project she was working on.

“Super intense emotion,” Sam explained, “Which means I can’t pair her off with Rory because that’s all Rory is. And…you know those really weird thoughts you get that are super horrible and you have no idea where they come from? She hears those like people are shouting them into megaphones.”

“Intrusive thoughts,” Mark clarified. “We talked about them in that one psych class I took for shits and giggles. I’m not surprised she can’t block those out.”

“Other than that, it’s been going well. They work well as a team and they take instruction well, no matter who it’s coming from. And they hold y’all in such high regard you guys might as well be the Trinity.”

“I call Wonder Woman,” Rachel joked. “Broody black bird can be Batman.”

“Then Mark is my Robin because there’s no way he’s Superman,” Kolby teased. It was just like being back in Avalon, even though she knew if she was there Mark would be shoving her for the joke. At least she could speak to them out in the open, instead of hiding away in her room with her door locked and her headphones on. 

“You think people don’t know Spectrum is the Superman to your Batman?” Sam asked, laughter in her voice. “Please, Tabby Cat frequents all the super hero fan sites, the amount of forums devoted to that subject are too numerous to count.”

“I wonder if people want Morrigan and Spectrum to date as much as they want Superman and Batman to date,” Wally muttered as he passed through the living room.

The four members of the Guard all made a face as they chorused. “Ew.”

Kolby smacked Wally lightly as he passed by the couch for the comment, but her action was just met with a grin. She turned back to the conversation at hand.

“And no sign of the Council outside of the evidence that says Blair might be in Metropolis?” Mark asked, bringing the conversation back to a more serious tone.

“None that we can find. But we’ve got our metaphorical eyes peeled for anything,” Sam assured. 

“I know you do,” Kolby said with a smile. “And thanks for looking after the little ones, I feel like we’ve pilled a lot onto you.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s no more than any other hero has to deal with.”

“Right, we’ll talk to you later. Rachel, Kolby, stay on the line a bit, I need to talk to you two,” Mark said.

“Alright, see you guys later.”

Sam left the group chat and there was a beat before Rachel spoke up. “So what’s up?”

Mark groaned, slamming his head on his desk and making his video wobble.

“Guys, I have a confession to make.”

“Oh, Mark, you didn’t bang that Tri Delta chick that’s been trying to get in your pants, did you?” Kolby asked, sympathy and concern in her voice.

“No, no, I didn’t do that,” Mark assured. “Besides, she’s going after my old hall mate now, so no worries.”

“Then what is it?”

“I-I like dick!” Mark sputtered out.

There was a pause before Kolby asked slowly, “The person?”

“Well, the body part too, but yeah, mostly the person.”

“Oh, darlin’,” Kolby cooed sympathetically. “Does he know?”

“Fuck if I know,” Mark groaned. “We talk on the phone a lot. And when I’m bored off my ass in my gen-eds we text. I just…fuck I think I’m in love.”

“You poor bastard,” Rachel muttered.

“You can’t say a fucking thing to Tim!” Mark warned. “And Kolby, don’t you say a word to Wally, I know they’re besties or whatever.”

“Probably should have thought of that before tell this to me while I’m sitting in Wally’s bleeding living room,” Kolby told him, even if she did glance into the bedroom to make sure Wally wasn’t paying attention.

“What are you gonna do?” Rachel asked, fully setting aside her work.

Mark shrugged pitifully. “Idunno. Probably nothing.” 

“No! You can’t do that!” Rachel insisted, grabbing onto her screen and shaking it like she was trying to grab on to Mark’s shoulders. “You have to tell him!”

“What? Like you’ve told Tim?” Mark snapped.

Rachel blushed and turned away from the screen. “I’m…working on it.”

Kolby snorted with laughter. How was it that she was the one with the most successful love life out of the Guard? Or at least the three of them (the little ones were too young for that sort of thing and Luke and Sam cheated by dating the Howell twins). If you had told her in high school that she’d manage to get herself a long term boyfriend her freshman year in college she probably would have laughed her ass off. 

“Speaking of the Batboys,” Rachel said, turning her attention to Kolby. “What the hell did you do to Damian?”

Kolby raised a brow questioningly. 

“Ever since he got back from his little trip up to the Watchtower like two weeks ago he’s been doing nothing but moping around the house,” Rachel explained. “He hardly ever leaves his room and when he does he hardly eats anything. He doesn’t even want to go on patrol! And I know you were up there that day, that’s half the reason he wanted to go. So what the hell happened?”

Kolby frowned at the memory, pulling her knees up under her chin. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Rachel and Mark obviously wanted to press, but lucky for Kolby they didn’t. Instead, they switched to complaining about their workloads. Kolby sat back and just listened. She hadn’t spoken to Damian since they’d fought. So he’d been shaken up that much? It didn’t surprise her that he was upset, but she expected him to be angrier. To try and argue about how he was obviously right to do what he did. But to hear that he just locked himself away, Kolby didn’t know what to do with that knowledge.

 

Kolby didn’t see or speak to Damian again until Thanksgiving. Tim had once again extended an invitation to the Guard’s families to join the Waynes for a holiday and Kolby couldn’t bring herself to say no. Not when she’d be able to see Mark and Rachel and certainly not when she found out Colin was being invited. Kolby adored Colin and understood how important the kid was for Damian. Honestly she wished Bruce would just adopt the kid already, but that wasn’t for her to say.

Rachel and Tim were waiting for them when they arrived at the Manor. It felt strange for Kolby to not have Damian waiting there on the front steps like he always did. Rachel immediately pulled her aside and gave her a stern look.

“Look, I don’t know what happened between you and the baby bat, but you two need to have a serious talk.”

“What are you-“

“When we told him you were coming, he fucking took off into the city and hasn’t come back. He’s been gone since last night. You need to find him and you need to talk.”

Kolby met Rachel’s hard stare with one of her own and nodded.

“Keep my parents distracted for me.”

 

“What the fuck am I doing? I have no idea where he is.”

Kolby growled in frustration and landed on top of a short apartment complex. She’d been flying around Gotham for what felt like hours without any luck. She’d tried calling Damian on the comlink but he hadn’t answered and now Kolby was flying aimlessly around Gotham trying to find him.

“Damian, where the hell are you?” she whispered to the darkening sky. 

A slight buzzing noise filtered in though her comlink. Someone was trying to contact her.

“Hello?”

A tiny voice replied, “Morgan?”

“Damian? Where are you? I’ve been looking for you for hours!”

Silence was all she got in return.

“Please, Damian, we need to talk. Where are you? Rachel said you were gone all night.”

“I’m at the bunker.”

Of course. The bunker. The place he and Dick became a real team. The place he and Kolby spent their first summer together.

“Stay put, Dami, I’ll be right there.”

Kolby didn’t know whether she was surprised or relieved that Damian was in fact still there when she arrived. He sat in a chair in front of the bunker’s version of the bat computer. He’d grown taller since she’d last seen him. Not by much, but enough that it was noticeable. 

“Damian?” 

He looked at her, his face unreadable. She hated it when she couldn’t read people. What she’d pay to have Kira’s empathy. 

“Look,” Kolby started, “We need to talk about what happened, even if it’s just me talking. I don’t know why you did what you did. I can’t even begin to understand why you thought it was okay to betray my trust, but that’s what you did. And it hurt, Damian. It hurt really bad.”

“You said you didn’t love him,” Damian’s voice cracked at the end and he scowled.

“Not in the way you’re thinking, no,” Kolby agreed. “But that doesn’t mean Wally isn’t important to me and that I want to hurt him.”

“But if you don’t love him, then why continue the relationship?”

“Because that’s what dating is all about!” Kolby said in exasperation. “It’s a trail run. You spend time together and learn about one another to see if you can be in love. Falling in love doesn’t happen right away, especially for someone like me. 

“Maybe you think you were saving me from some weird situation I didn’t want to be in but believe me Damian, if I didn’t want to be dating Wally I wouldn’t be.”

“So you’re just waiting around to see if you fall in love with him?”

“God, it sounds bad when you say it like that but yeah. Basically.”

“And what happens if you never do?”

“Well, then I suppose we end our relationship and go back to being friends.”

“You can do that?” 

“Well, I suppose it depends how you break up, but yeah. Babs and Dick managed to pull it off pretty well.”

There was a pregnant pause between the two, Kolby having said her piece and Damian thinking it over. Kolby’s hands tightened into fists as she waited, praying Damian would finally get it.

“Perhaps I came to an incorrect conclusion.”

“Yeah, well, you know what they say about assuming.” Kolby snorted at Damian’s confused expression. “It makes an ass out of you and me.”

Damian was thoroughly unimpressed with the joke.

 

Rachel turned when she heard the hidden door unlatch, smiling when Kolby and Damian came through. Damian already looked infinitely better than he had the past few weeks. Damian passed through the room without a word to anyone, but Rachel stopped Kolby before she could leave.

“Everything okay?” 

Kolby shrugged. “As okay as it can be, I suppose.”

“Did he apologize?”

“It’s kind of hard to tell with Damian, but I think he did.”

“As long as you guys are okay again.”

There was the sound of a scuffle outside the room. Kolby growled under her breath, hoping that Damian hadn’t gotten into a fight with someone so soon after coming back. She and Rachel peered around the door to see Mark and Dick standing nearby, Mark backed up against a wall. His face was unusually red, making the girls wonder what the hell Dick had said to him.

“Would you just stop fucking messing with me!” Mark hissed. “I hate it when you tease me like then when we both know you don’t like me like that!”

Dick just stared at Mark, confusion on his face. “You mean…you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Mark spat, fists clenched by his sides.

“How much I like you.”

It was Mark’s turn to stare, his face redder than Kolby had ever seen. He muttered something and Dick laughed joyfully and pulled him into a tight hug. Kolby and Rachel grinned at each other and ducked back into the study. 

 

Morrigan’s monitor duties were usually pretty tame, but not this time. 

She sat at the monitors with J’onn and Gwydion when they were suddenly alerted to an incoming distress call from Fawcett City. Shazam was having issues with a group of young women in masks who had somehow amassed an army of office workers.

Morrigan and Gwydion jumped to their feet, meeting each other’s gazes. They ran to the teleporter room, leaving J’onn behind with out a word. 

Fawcett City was a mess. Office workers were strewn all over the street, looking blitzed out of their minds. Most of them didn’t move as Morrigan and Gwydion made their way towards Shazam’s signal. The found the caped hero attempting to fight off a hoard of men and women who threw themselves at him without much strategy or thought to their safety. Behind their army, on a statue of some importance, sat three young women in masks. Morrigan and Gwydion recognized Kiki Chen, sitting atop the shoulders of the statue with a smug look on her face. The other two girls were new.

“Great, she’s got lackeys now,” Morrigan muttered.

“Who are your friends, Kiki?” Gwydion called, gaining the attention of both the young women and Shazam, who looked relieved to see them.

“That’s Morning Glory to you, you plebian,” Kiki hissed. “And these are my lovely apprentices: Nightshade and Belladonna.” 

“Aren’t those the same plant?” Morrigan taunted, raising a wall of ice between Shazam and the mass of civilians.

“Shut up!” Morning Glory shrieked and the civilians threw themselves more erratically at their wall.

“What are we gonna do?” Gwydion asked.

“I could shock them unconscious,” Morrigan suggested.

“Won’t that hurt them?” Shazam questioned, a look of concern on his face. It was now that Morrigan noticed how glazed his eyes looked.

“Not as much as continually fighting them will,” she replied. “And don’t tell me you inhaled some of their drug.”

“You mean that weird powder stuff they threw at me? I tried not to.”

“Fan-tucking-fastic,” she hissed, dropping her ice wall and sending out a wave of electricity into the crowd. 

But by the time the wave had made it through the crowd, Morning Glory and her new friends were gone.

“Shit!” Morrigan spat. She wanted to kick something but the only thing around were people and that just seemed a little cruel. She sighed heavily and turned to Shazam, who was breathing heavily. “You okay, big guy?”

“I think…I don’t…” the man pitched forward suddenly, a bolt of lighting coming down from the sky and striking him. Morrigan and Gwydion jumped back and shielded their eyes from the brightness. Morrigan opened her eyes first, gasping at what she saw.

It was a boy. A young boy, Damian’s age at the oldest. Morrigan knelt down and scooped the boy up, holding him close. 

“We need to get him to medbay.”

 

Morrigan, Gwydion, and J’onn stood outside the medbay, looking in through the observation window. 

“His real name is Billy Batson,” J’onn told them. “He’s been with the league for several years now.

“He’s a child,” Morrigan murmured, arms crossed and obviously upset at the development.

“As is Robin,” J’onn reminded. “And your ‘little ones’.”

“I never said I was okay with those situations either,” Morrigan retorted, glaring at the Martian. 

J’onn ignored the comment. “He’ll be fine. The drug has already made it’s way through his system. He should be waking up within the hour.”

“I want to talk to him when he’s up.”

“Very well, but Gwydion and I must return to monitor duty.”

Morrigan nodded, not taking her eyes off the unconscious body in front of her even as J’onn led Gwydion away. How was it, even with all the super powered adults, children still managed to get in harm’s way? True she had been a child (legally) when she became the Morrigan, but a child that society considered old enough to work and be in control of a 2 ton speeding vehicle of metal that killed more people around the world than things people were actually scared of dying in. She hadn’t felt like a child. But Damian, Kira, Serenity, Rory, Billy, they felt like children. They had small hands and big, curious eyes that looked at the world in awe. Well, Damian didn’t, but the others certainly did. But Damian hadn’t been allowed to be a child, and Morrigan was starting to get the feeling that Billy didn’t either. 

Her attention was brought back to the present by the sinking feeling that someone was watching her. She looked up to see Billy’s brilliant blue eyes staring at her. It hurt how much he looked like Damian. She couldn’t help wondering if she could handle Damian being brought down by the Garden Council. If Shazam, the World’s Mightiest Mortal or whatever he called himself, could be defeated by the Council’s drug, then anyone was venerable. She inhaled deeply to calm herself and entered the room.

“Hi,” she greeted the boy softly, forcing a small smile to her face and hoping it didn’t look too fake, “I’m Morrigan, but you can call me Kolby. You’re Billy, right?”

Billy nodded. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop them before you got there.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kolby reassured. “You were infected by their drug. I know what that feels like, it’s not fun is it?”

Billy shook his head, confusion evident on his face. Kolby wondered when was the last time Billy had been treated like the child he was, instead of the adult he was expected to be. She wondered about his family, if they knew about his super hero identity. 

“Can you tell me what happened before me and Gwydion showed up?” she asked. 

Billy’s expression turned thoughtful as he spoke, “Well, I was walking down the street when I saw some people running out of buildings and coughing. I thought maybe there was a fire and I could help.”

“But it wasn’t a fire. It was Morning Glory and her friends.”

“They weren’t happy I showed up,” Billy said with a frown. “Said something about how I was messing up their test run.”

“They must have been testing to make sure their drug was effective as an inhalant,” Kolby muttered to herself. 

“You guys showed up not long after that.”

“I see. Thank you, Billy.”

It wasn’t much, but at least now she knew that Sable wasn’t the only one who had changed the drug. If both Sable and Kiki had changed the formula to make their drugs inhalants, it was only logical to assume that Blair had done the same thing. The drug could spread more quickly now. And it would be far more potent. She frowned heavily. 

“Miss Kolby?”

“C’mon, Billy, I’ll take you home,” Kolby told him, turning towards the door. “And you can drop the ‘miss’ kiddo. I’m not that much older than you.”

 

Kolby frowned as she stared up at the beaten up red brick building that Billy insisted was his home. It reminded her of the apartment buildings in the slums of Gotham that punks liked to hang out in. 

“You don’t live alone, do you?” she felt compelled to ask.

“No, I live with my Uncle Dudley,” Billy insisted.

Kolby stared at the building a little longer before turning to the young boy beside her.

“How about you spend New Years with us?”

“Us?” Billy echoed.

“Yeah, me and the Guard. One of our little ones, Serenity, really likes Shazam. I’m sure she’d be really excited to meet you.”

“Sure!” Billy said excitedly, bouncing a little.

Kolby reached into her pocket and pulled out a random receipt from when she’d bought dinner earlier and scribbled an address on it. She handed it to Billy with a grin.

“Party starts at 7 and we’re going way past midnight,” Kolby told him, her smile growing brighter when Billy smiled back. “So don’t be late.”


	8. Damian's Pillow Fort Adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nanowrimo may be over, but updates will continue at once a week. Things may seem slow story wise, but don't worry. I have plans. Lots of plans. Like a timeline that spans two and a half pages on googledocs and about eight years. So look forward to that.

“So let me get this straight,” Mark said as he set a bowl of punch on the coffee table. “You invited Shazam to the New Year’s party we’re having at Wayne Manor.”

“No, I invited Billy Batson to the New Year’s party we’re having at Wayne Manor,” Kolby corrected sarcastically. “Serious, we’ve already got Colin, Toby, Tabitha, Sam, Luke, Rory, Serenity, and Kira coming. I figured one more couldn’t hurt. Besides, Serenity likes Shazam.”

“She’s got like five posters of him in her room!” Rory shouted from across the room, earning a smack on the arm from Serenity. 

Kolby rolled her eyes at the interruption. “I didn’t see the harm and figured the kid would like to have some friends to spend the holiday with is all.”

“KOLBY!” Kolby jumped at the sound of Rachel’s near panicked shout and turned to see the younger heroine rush into the room, dragging Damian behind her. “We have an emergency!”

“What?! What is it? Is someone hurt? Where’s Kira? Someone do a role call!”

“Damian has never built a pillow fort!” 

Kolby stopped in her panicking and glared at Rachel. And then she punched her in the arm. Hard.

“Don’t DO that!” Kolby scolded. “I nearly had a heart attack you piece of shit! That is not an emergency!”

“Yes it is!” Rachel argued. “No child should live his life without constructing a pillow fort!”

“I agree but next time don’t scare me to death.”

“Sorry, mom.”

Kolby just glared harder.

Rachel turned to the youngest Guard members, who had gathered around to see what the fuss was about, and Damian, who looked very unenthused. 

“Go forth and gather no less than four chairs, sixteen blankets, and every pillow you can find,” she said in a very official sounding voice. “Also help me move the sofa so that it is exactly three feet from that wall. If you can find giant pillows, those are the best for the base because laying on the floor kills your back. If not, grab Bruce’s mattress, it’s the biggest. Also we need stuffed animals. No, they are not optional. We need at least two per entrance.”

“Maybe we should wait for Colin and Billy,” Kolby suggested, not wanting the others to miss out.

“We’ll save the building for when they get here.”

It didn’t take long for Colin to arrive, driving up on the motorbike Damian had gifted him with a few Christmases back. He was quickly drawn into the excitement of the scavenger hunt by an enthusiastic Rory. Just after seven there was a knock at the door, which Kolby rushed to get. 

Billy stood on the doorstep, looking more than a little overwhelmed at the location of the party. He smiled in relief when he saw Kolby, who ushered him in and out of the cold.

“I’m glad you could make it, Billy. Serenity will be happy to meet you. Oh, and we’re making a pillow fort ‘cause Damian’s never gotten to before. You wanna help?”

Billy nodded enthusiastically, grinning at the pile of building materials the other kids had dragged into the living room. Rachel ordered the kids about with a smile on her face, getting the supplies organized into different piles so she knew what she was working with.

“Everyone’s here,” Kolby announced. “I think we need an away team to raid the pantry for every type of snack you can find. Cookies are best, so grab those first.”

“And someone make tea and coffee,” Rachel ordered. “And before anyone asks, no I’m not on the gathering team because I am the architect.”

Kolby ended up leading Kira and Colin into the kitchen to grab treats. Colin ‘borrowed’ a cart from Alfred and began to pile it high with all of the fresh baked goods the butler had been making for the party. Kira disappeared into the pantry and came back with several kinds of chips loaded into her arms. 

Kolby wasn’t about to give the children coffee, but she convinced Alfred to help her brew up some hot cocoa for them instead, along with a warm mug of vanilla chai for herself and a mug of earl grey for Rachel. They returned later to find the fort fully constructed. A true monstrosity of blankets and pillows and she was fairly certain that someone had gone and grabbed Bruce’s mattress (probably Rory). On one of the chairs that held the blankets up, a sign written in rainbow colored crayon said ‘No Batmans Allowed’ (in smaller, fancier handwriting, someone had written ‘except Grayson, he may enter’). 

“Password?” Rachel demanded as they neared, earning giggles from Serenity and Rory and a shit-eating grin from Billy.

“We have cookies,” Kolby said, not bothering to mention that they hadn’t been told the password.

“Wrong, but you have brought offerings, so we’ll allow it,” Rachel announced, snatching a brownie from the cart.

The fort was a little cramped with everyone inside it. Kolby found herself sandwiched between Damian and Billy as Rachel attempted to get Netflix to work on the TV Colin had brought in from one of the many media rooms the manor had.

“What’s all this?” Kolby turned best she could to see Dick and Mark squatting by the entrance to their fort (well protected by Bartholomew the Bat and Trevor Turtle from the stuffed animal brigade).

Rachel grinned at them, “Oh hey, Mark. You wanna come in and join the rest of the Dicksquad?”

The looks the occupants of the fort gave her ranged from confused to insulted. 

“What? Kolby, Damian, and Mark all trained under Dick. So Dicksquad.” 

Dick decided to ignore the statement completely. “Move over, I’m coming in.”

“Not without a password you’re not!” Rachel denied, diving for the entrance.

“But the sign says I can come in,” Dick argued, a pout forming on his face.

“Pouting will not work. We need the password, we can’t give in to just anyone!”

“Little D, tell her to let me in!”

Damian, who had been paying attention to the movie Rachel had just started, glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. “Rules are rules, Grayson.”

Rory started drumming her fist on the floor and chanted, “Password. Password.” Serenity and the other young ones soon joined her.

“Do you have the password or not?” Rachel asked.

Dick thought for a moment. “…is it ‘Bruce stinks’?”

Rachel’s suspicious expression transformed into a bright smile. “Indeed it is! Scootch over, guys, we got another one coming in!”

“Make that two, I’m claiming Mark as my plus one,” Dick announced, grabbing Mark’s hand and pulling him into the now very crowded fort. 

 

Eventually the occupiers of the fort were dragged out to watch the ball drop on the big screen. Kolby leaned against the arm of a chair, arms wrapped around Damian’s shoulders as he stood in front of her. He’d gotten taller again. One of these days she was going to show up at the manor and he was going to tower over her. 

The group got antsier the closer it got to midnight. Dick pulled Mark closer in preparation for their first kiss of the New Year and Kolby found herself missing Wally. He was spending New Years up on the Watchtower with the vast majority of the other League members. But it was alright, he had joined her and her parents for Christmas and she’d see him again soon. 

“Here it comes everyone!” Luke shouted, one arm around Toby and a cup of (probably spiked) punch in his other hand. “FIVE!”

“FOUR!”

“THREE!”

“TWO!”

“ONE!”

The whole house shook with the cheers of the Guard and the younger members of the Bat family. “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

Dick dipped Mark back for a kiss. Rachel practically tackled Tim to the ground. Luke and Sam pressed small pecks to their respective twin’s lips. Kolby just tightened her hold on Damian for a brief moment in something akin to a hug.

“Happy New Year, Dami,” she whispered.

Damian took one of her hands in his, pressing the briefest of kisses to the back of her hand and whispered back. “Happy New Year, beloved.”

 

The builders returned to their fort, Rachel putting on a Ghibli movie marathon. They all fell asleep eventually, Damian sandwiched between Kolby and Rachel, curling into Kolby’s side as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders. On Kolby’s other side, Billy and Serenity had fallen asleep facing each other, holding hands like they had been since a particularly intense scene during Princess Mononoke. On Rachel’s other side, Colin lay with his head pillowed on her outstretched arm in a way that was definitely going to make it numb in the morning. Beside him, Rory lay on her back, arms curled protectively around both Colin and Kira. Kolby was a little surprised they had gotten away with stealing Bruce’s mattress, but he probably just used it as an excuse to stay up all night in the Bat cave. 

She woke up the next morning to find Dick had texted a picture of the sleeping group to her. If she made it her background, she wasn’t going to tell Dick.


	9. But He Don't Know Me I'm Magic Like Harry Potter

February in Kansas was fucking cold. Kolby grumbled as she trotted down the street towards the apartment she shared with Wally, bundled up tight in her winter coat and scarf and hat and boots she bought specifically for walking through the Central City snow. Her hands were stuffed in her pockets because she was stupid and forgot her gloves that day. She would have stayed at school and waited for Wally to pick her up but something had come up at the station and he had to stay late, so Kolby was marching home. It was fairly late into the evening, so all the snow from the day had already been trampled by the commuters heading home, which made the walk a little better. She just didn’t like walking in the cold if she didn’t have to. She probably needed to get a damn bus pass like everyone else at the university.

She was nearly home when something in the air made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She turned around, but there was no one behind her. 

“Excuse me,” Kolby gasped and whirled on the speaker, coming face to face with a pale young man in a rather fancy looking suit and strange, almost horn-like hair.

“What?” she blurted, unused to being taken off guard like this.

“You are the Morrigan correct?” the boy asked, stroking the orange tabby in his arms that Kolby could have sworn was not there before. Morrigan kept her face straight, not giving anything away, just like Bruce and Dick taught her.

“Not unless there’s something people aren’t telling me,” she said jokingly. “Do I look like a winged super heroine to you, kiddo?”

“Perhaps not to most,” the boy admitted. “But I can see the three sisters inside you, Morrigan, the ones that give you your power.”

Kolby took a step back, staring at the boy in front of her. Was he a metahuman? It could be possible, but he didn’t feel like a meta. He had a aura to him that was all his own and, frankly, it freaked Kolby out.

“Kid, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you should probably get home, it’s dark out and it’ll only get colder.”

She stepped around him and continued her trek home, determined to forget the incident. The feeling of being watched stayed with her the whole way home, even though frequent checks over her shoulders told her she was alone. She reached the apartment building without much more of a fuss, looking behind her one more time before slipping into the building.

 

Wally sat at the kitchen table, sipping a mug of hot cocoa. Most people drank coffee in the morning, but doing that was generally a bad idea where Wally was concerned. Caffeine generally just made him jittery and more prone to losing control of his speed, even if was in small ways. Kolby had seemed uneasy last night, and he couldn’t quite figure out why. She wouldn’t tell him, saying it was nothing and he didn’t need to worry about it, but that didn’t stop Wally from worrying at all. 

Kolby stepped out of the bathroom, a wave of steam following her. She rubbed at her wet hair with a towel, padding over in bare feet which would likely be covered in about ten minutes because if there was one thing Kolby couldn’t stand, it was cold feet. She grabbed herself a glass from the cabinet and filled it to the brim with milk before grabbing a muffin from the plastic container they’d come in. Generally, she liked homemade muffins best, but she had to admit there was an appeal to the overt fattening properties of the store bought muffins. Especially the ones with sugar on top. 

“You feelin’ better today?” Wally asked, wrapping his arm around her waist as she came to stand beside him and read the paper over his shoulder (The Daily Planet, mostly he just looked for anything Clark wrote and anything superhero related). 

“I think so,” Kolby mumbled, still only half awake. It was one of those grey-sky days that made her sleepy. 

“You wanna tell me what that was all about?” he asked again, hoping she’d actually give him a real answer this time.

Kolby sighed. “I had a run in with a weird kid is all.”

“Weird how?”

“He was super fucking pale and his hair made these little horns and he talked about Morrigan and her sisters,” Kolby explained, running her fingers nervously through her wet hair. 

Wally stiffened next to her. “Did he have a cat with him?”

Kolby looked down at him, confusion on her face. “Yeah, some scrappy looking orange tabby.” 

Wally groaned, setting his mug down and hiding his face in his hands. Kolby wrapped an arm around his shoulder and rested her cheek on his hair.

“What is it? Do you know the kid?”

“That kid is Klarion the Witch boy and he’s been a pain in my side forever.”

 

Wally didn’t want Kolby to leave the apartment knowing that Klarion was out there hunting for her, but Kolby wasn’t about to let some magic beanpole and his cat get in the way of her saving people and kicking ass. So, when they got the alert that Captain Cold was trying to rob the Central City gold deposit, the two off them took off together, despite the lingering sense of danger that having Klarion around tended to leave. 

Cold was easy to deal with, despite Morrigan’s back being open to the below freezing wind (she really needed to talk to Bruce or Alfred about designing a better costume for her). Flash was more than willing to stand close by, his hyperactive metabolism making much warmer than the average person. The two of them were waiting for the police to put Cold in the back of the van before they took off, just in case something happened and they had to intervene, when Morrigan got that uneasy feeling again. She turned and say Klarion standing on the sidewalk, watching her and Flash. She tugged at Flash’s arm and nodded her head towards the witch boy. The speedster saw him and immediately went on edge. As soon as the door to the police van slammed shut, he grabbed Morrigan, holding her in his arms, and took off at super speed. 

Kolby had to close her eyes to keep her from getting sick to her stomach as scenery passed by in a blur, but when the feeling of moving too fast for her body to keep up finally stopped, they were back in their apartment, door locked tight. Wally set her down gently, keeping an arm around her shoulder incase she was still unbalanced. 

“Think we lost him?” Kolby asked slowly, her head still spinning.

“Oh I hope so,” the two of them stiffened at the sound of a unwelcome voice. “Some people are just so rude, I understand why you’d run away.”

They looked over to see Klarion sitting in the living room’s arm chair, stroking his cat like he fucking belonged there. Wally stepped in front of Kolby, eyes narrowing dangerously but Klarion didn’t seem to care. 

“What do you want Klarion?” Wally demanded. 

“Nothing you can give me, speedster,” Klarion waved him off. “No, what I want is something only the Gordon child can provide.”

“And that is?”

“I want the Goddesses!” Klarion declared, standing suddeniy, forcing his cat to leap from his lap with a yowl. 

“I don’t think I can give them to you,” Kolby told him, though there was doubt in her voice. She had no idea of knowing whether or not the witch-boy could actually take the Goddesses away from her.

“But I want them!” Klarion whined. Kolby was taken aback by the childishness of the statement. For someone Wally had described as being a Lord of Chaos, she expected him to be more menacing. His cat friend rubbed at the boy’s spindly legs, staring at Kolby with its red eyes. 

“Look, I can’t give you them even if I wanted to! It’s my covenant to keep, they need me to survive!” Kolby told him, stepping out from behind Wally.

“They don’t need you,” Klarion argued. “They need a body. Any body will do. And I don’t need all of them. I can just take one of them. How about Macha?”

Kolby crossed her arms defensively. “I don’t trust you with Macha. I barely trust myself with Macha, and that’s only because Badb and Morrigan like me enough to keep her at bay. You’re not getting Macha, you’re not getting to any of them, so fuck off!”

“NO! I WANT THEM!” Klarion screeched, lashing out with a wave of black and red magical energy.

Kolby summoned a wall of ice to block the energy, the wall shattered, but stopped the attack from reaching her and Wally. She lashed out in retaliation, snapping her fingers in Klarion’s general direction to send a bolt of lightning his way. The witch-boy threw out a hand to catch the bolt, absorbing it into his skin like it was nothing. 

“I’ll get them eventually, Gordon,” Klarion promised, hissing like a snake. “You’re only delaying the inevitable.”

And then, in a puff of smoke, the witch-boy disappeared.

Kolby and Wally stood in silence for a long moment before Kolby sighed heavily and pushed her hood off her head to run a hand through her hair. Great, just what she needed, another sworn enemy. Like she didn’t have enough on her plate worrying about the Garden Council. 

“Don’t worry,” Wally soothed, wrapping an arm around Kolby’s shoulders. “He’ll get bored of the idea of getting Macha and leave you alone eventually.” 

Kolby groaned, moving to flop on the couch. Eventually could mean a very long time, especially when an ageless Lord of Chaos was involved. She was not looking forward to this.

 

Kolby stared at her screen, rereading the email for what was probably the fifth time. It told her everything she wanted to hear, but she couldn’t bring herself to be as excited as she wanted to be. She sighed and closed her laptop, leaning against the back of the couch. She heard the door open and she turned to see Wally walk in. He paused to look at the suitcase beside the door. It was the Thursday before spring break and Kolby was heading down to Dallas to meet with the rest of the Guard before they went off for a group vacation, courtesy of Ollie this time. 

“You ready to go?” Wally asked, watching as Kolby stood and stuffed her laptop into her backpack.

“Now I am,” she announced, lifting the bag and walking it over to the door as well. 

Wally waited until she set the bag down before wrapping his arms around her. She turned in his grasp to face him, a small smile on her face. He moved his arms up, cradling her face in his hands. He stroked at her cheek bones, and then leaned down to place a small kiss on her lips.

“I’m gonna miss you,” he murmured, and Kolby couldn’t ignore the pang in her heart at how genuine he sounded. 

“You could come with us,” Kolby offered. “I got the master bedroom when we drew straws. I’m sure there’d be plenty of room for both of us in that California king size bed.” 

Wally laughed heartily, placing another kiss on her nose. “You’re sweet, but unlike you college kids, I can’t just take off for Hawaii for a week in the middle of March. You have fun, and let me know when you get there.”

 

The driver had dropped them off at the gate, which Mark waved open with a card key. The group gaped at the sheer size of the house, this so called ‘vacation home’ was larger than all of their houses combined. 

“I can’t believe Ollie is letting us stay here,” Toby said, awe in his voice as he tugged his suitcase down the driveway. 

“I can’t believe Ollie has a random vacation home with like 8 bedrooms,” Sam joked. “Seriously, what does he need a house with 8 bedrooms for?”

“Wayne manor has more bedrooms than that and for the longest time it was just Bruce and Alfred,” Kira justified. “Ollie’s much more of a partier than Bruce is. The larger the house, the bigger the party can be.”

“Well now it’s our party!” Mark crowed, shoving the front door open and proudly stepping into the tropical mansion. “I’m gonna toss my suitcase in my room, throw on my trunks and head down to the beach. Who’s with me?”

The Guard cheered loudly, rushing off to the bedrooms they’d been assigned when they had drawn straws about a week ago. They quickly stripped out of their normal clothes and threw on their swimsuits. Towels were grabbed and they ran down the small stairway that led from the paved porch to the small private beach. The sand was white and the sea was blue as blue could be. There was a fire pit and a volleyball net, everything they could need to have a good time. Kolby tossed her towel onto one of the benches that ringed the fire pit and ran for the ocean. Toby, Luke, Tabitha, Sam, Rory, and Rachel rushed for the volleyball net, Luke having grabbed a ball from the house before they left. Mark helped Serenity set up a beach umbrella so she and Kira could read their paranormal romance novels without worrying about getting heat stroke.

Kolby sat in the ocean’s cool water, content to let the tide push and pull harmlessly at her shoulders. Mark joined her a moment later, content with the job he had done with Serenity’s umbrella. They sat together, watching the twins and the others play volleyball, calling out reminders to Luke and Rory that using their powers was definitely considered cheating. This was good. She could get used to being able to forget about the world and relax. She closed her eyes and leaned back, tempted to just float off and let the ocean carry her away. 

Then, she felt it. That tingling, hair raising sensation that she felt that night walking home from university. She opened her eyes and stared up, growling when she saw Klarion just floating there with a giant grin on his face.

“What do you want, you little shit?” she shouted up at him, catching the other Guard’s attention. 

“Same thing I wanted last time,” Klarion called down with a laugh. “But this time I’m not going to be so nice about it!”

A claw like apparition of red and black magical energy appeared above Klarion’s head and bore down on Kolby. She spread her wings, happy that she had become so conscious about what articles of clothing would allow her to summon her wings easiest. She beat her wings hard, shooting up out of the water and grabbing Mark to pull him out of the way with her. She set him down on the beach’s warm sand, landing just beside him.

“Who the hell is that?” Luke asked, running over to Kolby and Mark.

“Klarion the Witch Boy,” Kolby informed them. “Wally says he’s some kind of lord of chaos or something, I’m not entirely sure. Mostly he’s just a pain in my ass.”

“What does he want?” Sam questioned, a pole arm made of shadows already in her hand.

“Morrigan and her sisters,” Kolby said, ignoring the looks of surprise on her friends’ faces. “He aims to take them from me even though I’m pretty sure that’s not possible.” 

“Enough talk!” Rory declared, summoning her wolf familiar to her side. “Big Bad, take him out!”

“Rory, no!”

The ghostly wolf leapt into the air towards Klarion, who summoned a translucent red shield to stop the beast. Upon touching the shield, Big Bad was electrocuted by Klarion’s magic, transferring the pain back to Rory.

Rory screamed, going down to her knees and panting. “Fucking magic. I hate it!”

“Watch your language,” Kolby warned, not taking her eyes off Klarion, who just grinned down at her.

“You curse all the time!” 

“I’m also not a thirteen year old girl who’s only just recently learned those words.”

“What kind of magic does he use?” The group turned to look at Serenity, who stared up at Klarion with curious silver eyes.

“Hell if I know,” Kolby shrugged. “Chaos magic, I guess? Wally said something about him being a sorcerer.” 

Curiosity turned into determination as a confident smile formed on Serenity’s face. “I’ve got this, then.”

She stepped forward and Klarion raised an incredulous eyebrow at the small young woman. She looked a little ridiculous, walking with such confidence while in a pink and white polka dot swim suit, but they probably all looked a little ridiculous. She raised her hands, glowing silvery blue with her own magical energy.

“Goddess Cerridwen, keeper of the cauldron and sorceress of the moon,” she chanted lowly, “Bestow upon me great power, so that I might defeat the man who seeks to forcefully break my sister’s covenant with the Queen of Phantoms!”

Her magic glowed brighter and Serenity grinned, throwing darts of magic at Klarion. The darts pelted his shield and a large crack slowly formed. The witch boy scowled and became more aggressive, sending bolt after bolt of red-black magic at Serenity, who produced her own shield in retaliation. She summoned small birds of her magic, who flew at Klarion and attempted to distract him enough that he dropped his shield all together. Klarion quickly swatted the birds out of existence with a magical claw.

The Guard watched as the scene played out, and the artist in Kolby decided that Serenity’s magic and Klarion’s magic contrasted rather nicely. She felt a little bit ashamed of the thought, now was not the time to be thinking about color theory, even if the pale blue and silver did look spectacular when clashing with the deep crimson and black. She shook the thought out of her head and decided that she wasn’t going to let Serenity fight her battle for her. She took off into the air, flying at Klarion, fire balls forming in her hands.

She threw the orb of flame at her opponent, the crack in the shield exploding open. Klarion leapt back in surprise, only to be caught by another dart of Serenity’s magic in his shoulder, nearly forcing him to drop his dumb cat. Kolby snapped her fingers, sending a bolt of lightning in his direction, but the witch boy threw out a hand and absorbed the lightning into his palm like it was nothing.

“Even with Goddesses giving you powers, your magic is pathetic,” Klarion taunted. “You must have absolutely no affinity for the mystic arts!”

“Maybe I don’t,” Kolby shouted, “But she does!”

She ducked out of the way just as Serenity launched a huge beam of magical energy Klarion’s way. The sorcerer let out an angry screech and tried to meet the magic beam with one of his own. He wasn’t expecting the rest of the Guard to get involved with the little duel. He shrieked when a clump of wet, heavy seaweed wrapped around his ankle, pulling him into the shallow water at Toby’s command. He cough and spluttered as he tried to get his footing, his cat hissing and running from the salty water in fear. Rory summoned her bear familiar to trap the cat, one paw on its back and the bears jaw hovering threateningly over it’s neck.

“There’s only one reason a sorcerer carries around an animal like that,” Tabitha taunted. “The cat’s his familiar!”

“You wouldn’t dare harm a poor, defenseless pussy cat, would you?” Klarion asked, a threatening hiss to his voice. “I mean, what kind of heroes would that make you?”

“The kind who don’t have a rouges gallery because we take care of the threat the first time,” Kolby said coldly and Rory took the opportunity to let Goldilocks lower his open jaw closer to Klarion’s cat.

“Teekl!” Klarion shouted. He turned to the Guard with a scowl. “You don’t play fair!”

“Says the incarnation of Chaos,” Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Fine, you win!” Klarion relented and Rory nodded at Goldilocks, who let Teekl go. The orange tabby ran to Klarion, leaping into his arms and purring contently as the boy pet its fur soothingly. “But only this time. I had fun dueling with you, moon child. I’ll be back to do it again. And maybe next time we’ll actually find out which one of us is the better mystic. Well, I mean of course it’s me, but I’ll actually get to show you then.”

Serenity shot another bolt his way, only for Klarion and his familiar to pop out of existence just before it hit.

There was a silence before Rachel spoke up again. “Well…he was obnoxious.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus we get the introduction of Klarion. This is the Young Justice version of Klarion, as that is the only version of him I have experience with. And don't worry, I promise he won't be a one off character.


	10. Bye-bye Birdie

Kolby didn’t spend a whole lot of her free time on the Watchtower. She didn’t have a whole lot of friends in the league (mostly just Oliver, Dinah, Aria and kind of J’onn (Wally was her boyfriend, so he didn’t count)), so there was really no reason for her to be up there more often than she had to. The only reason she was up there when it wasn’t her monitor duty was because she was the only reason Kira could get up there to train with J’onn. She had decided to leave the two alone this time, wandering about the Watchtower’s metal hallways with no real direction or purpose to her meandering.

She turned a corner towards the mess hall when she ran into Aria, whose face lit up at the sight of the younger girl.

“Kolby! I’ve been looking for you!” she greeted cheerfully, reaching out and grabbing Kolby’s hands tightly.

“It’s nice to see you too, Aria,” Kolby returned with a smile. “But you know if you wanted to find me you could have just contacted me through the comlink.”

Aria’s face flushed with embarrassment. “Oh, I always forget ‘bout those dumb things.”

Kolby shook her head fondly. “What did you need, anyway?”

Aria glanced around, as if looking for eavesdroppers. She then tugged Kolby into a side room that Kolby had never been in before. 

“I wanted to tell you something important,” Aria whispered, grinning brightly.

“Okay, but why the secrecy?” Kolby asked.

“Because I don’t want others hearing before I’m ready for them to,” Aria explained quickly, bouncing excitedly.

“Okay, okay, spill!”

Aria’s smile grew even wider. “I’m pregnant!”

Kolby gasped loudly, choking on her breath and coughing violently as a result. 

“You’re kidding!” she accused.

“I’m not!” Aria insisted.

“Holy SHIT!” Kolby squealed. “How far along are you?”

“Three weeks,” Aria said, a hand drifting to her still flat stomach. “I went to the doctor the other day to confirm it.”

“On my god,” Kolby murmured. “Does Clark know?”

Aria shook her head. “I haven’t told him yet.”

“How do you keep something like that away from him?” Kolby laughed in disbelief.

“Let’s just say that when we first started dating we had a long talk about him not using his little snooping powers on me,” Aria joked.

The excitement quickly died when another question popped into Kolby’s mind. She frowned heavily and asked, “Do your parents know?”

Aria’s face fell at the question and a bitterness dulled her eyes. “No. And I don’t think I’m gonna tell ‘em.”

“Why not?”

“Clark and I aren’t married, you see,” Aria explained. “And mama and papa aren’t too keen on the whole sex out of wedlock thing. He and I weren’t even sure I could get pregnant since he’s not human, you know, so we didn’t think it’d be a problem but…”

“Your parents did know you were living with him, right?”

“Of course they know,” Aria insisted. “But it’s pretty easy to hide what you’re doing from your parents when they live hundreds of miles away.”

“I know that feeling,” Kolby agreed with a laugh. “So, when are you gonna tell Clark?”

“Soon,” Aria asserted. “I’ve got a plan to make it a big ol’ surprise for him!”

“I’m really happy you told me,” Kolby told her, squeezing Aria’s hand in her own. “And I’m shocked you decided to tell me first. But you let me know if you need anything, even if that includes flying over to your parent’s place and knocking some sense into them. You got that?”

Aria laughed, “I hear ya.”

“Good. And let me know how Clark reacts. I bet it’ll be priceless.”

 

Aria waited until she and Clark were back home in Metropolis. She held the paper in shaking hands as she walked up to her significant other, who was sitting on the couch reading the daily paper (or one of them, Clark had subscriptions to several newspapers).

“Hey, darlin’,” she called, stepping up to the arm of the couch closest to Clark.

“Yeah, honey?” he said back, not looking up from his paper yet.

“I forgot to hand this form in to J’onn today while I was on the Watchtower and I don’t go back until next Tuesday. Do you think you can turn this in to him for me when you go up tomorrow?”

Clark looked up to take the paper Aria held out to him, reading the header. “Request of Leave from Duty? Whatever for?”

Aria forced back her giggle. “Why don’t you keep reading and find out?”

Clark scanned the page, stopping once he reached the line where Aria had written out her reason for requesting leave. He reread the line another three times before looking up at Aria in awe.

“You’re…”

Aria nodded, her smile breaking through and she giggled uncontrollably. Clark whooped loudly, dropping the form and his newspaper to grasp Aria about the hips and lift her off the ground, twirling her around.

“You’re pregnant!” he laughed joyously. “We’re gonna have a baby!” 

“We’re gonna have a baby,” Aria confirmed, still giggling even when Clark set her back on the floor.

“How long…?”

“I’m three weeks along,” Aria told him. “That’s what the doctor’s appointment on Wednesday was about. I’d been nauseous for the last couple of weeks, so I went to see what was wrong. I nearly fainted when she told me I was pregnant.”

“Have you told anyone else?” Clark asked, his hands still on Aria’s hips.

“Just Kolby,” Aria replied. “I was waiting to surprise you but I just had to tell someone.”

A look of confusion crossed Clark’s face. “What about your parents?”

Aria stiffened and looked away, starting at the floor instead of Clark’s too blue eyes. “I don’t think I’m going to tell them.”

“What? Why not?” Clark asked, sitting on the arm of the couch and pulling Aria so she stood between his knees. His hands remained on her hips, thumbs running soothing circles into the fabric of her jeans. He knew very little about Aria’s relationship with her parents, even after dating her for four years. She spoke of her parents sparingly and hadn’t been to visit them for any major holidays since Clark had introduced her to his parents back in Smallville. 

“Mama and papa are very…old fashioned,” Aria attempted to explain. “Very into the Bible, you know. They aren’t into the whole ‘test runs’ before you put a ring on it. If they found out that not only was I having sex with you before we got married, but I got pregnant, they’d be livid.”

Clark frowned and pulled Aria closer to him, pressing a small, comforting kiss to her temple as he nuzzled at her hair. He didn’t know what to do. Aria’s relationship with her parents was obviously not as ideal as Clark’s relationship with his parents were. Sure ma would insist that he marry Aria as soon as he could when he eventually tells her about the pregnancy, but she would never be angry with him for sleeping with Aria before marriage in the first place. At least he didn’t think so. 

“I still think you should call them,” he said softly, resting his forehead on her shoulder. “They’re going to find out sooner or later. It might as well be on your terms.”

Aria frowned, her hands going to Clark’s shoulders and squeezing. She knew he was right. Eventually her parents would find out about the child, whether while it was still in her belly or after it was born. Better to get it over with now than deal with it later.

She pulled away from Clark and reached for her cell phone on the kitchen counter. She dialed the number with shaking hands, walking back towards Clark. She let him pull her back between his knees and wrap his arms around her waist, his touch keeping her grounded.

One ring. Two rings. “Hello?” It was her mother.

“Hi, mama,” Aria said, feeling her throat constrict. “It’s me.”

“Aria, how are you, sweetheart?” her mother asked jovially.

“I’m okay. I’ve got something I need to tell you.”

“What is it, sweetheart, are you okay?”

Aria sniffled as she fought back the tears that were building up in her eyes. “I’m fine, mama. It’s just…I’m pregnant.”

Aria felt her heart stop in the silence that followed. 

“You what?”

“I’m pregnant, mama. Clark and I are having a baby.”

There was a silence again and when her mother spoke again she sounded far less happy than she had previously.

“Now correct me if I’m wrong, sweetheart, but you and Mr. Kent aren’t married.”

“No, you’re right,” Aria agreed. “We’re not married yet.”

“So what in God’s name do you think you’re doing being pregnant when you’re not married?” her mother demanded and Aria could just imagine how red her mother’s face must be.

“It’s not like we planned it, mama,” Aria said, her voice sharpening as the anger set in. “We didn’t even think we could have a baby.”

“So you thought you could just spit in the face of God and ruin yourself before marriage?” her mother shrieked.

“I’m not RUINED, mama!” Aria shouted and Clark flinched. Aria rarely got so angry she shouted. Her anger tended to be cold, bitter silences and hard stares.

“I refuse to believe I raised my daughter to be a harlot!” Aria’s mother huffed over the phone and Clark could hear it all perfectly.

“I’m not a harlot, mama! And even if I was, there’s nothing wrong with that! Are you honestly telling me that you’re putting your precious holy book over your own daughter?”

“I’m not sure I even have a daughter anymore.”

Clark’s head shot up and he saw Aria’s tears spill over her cheeks. Anger turned into shock which turned into sorrow.

“You don’t mean that, mama,” Aria whispered, shaking her head in disbelief. “Tell me you don’t mean that.”

“Don’t bother coming home anymore.” There wasn’t even a waver in her mother’s voice. Nothing to give her hope that maybe her mother hesitated in her decision. 

“Then don’t bother looking for an invitation for when we DO get married, you heartless BITCH!” Aria screamed and threw her phone against the wall. She didn’t even get the satisfaction of it breaking or leaving a dent in the wall. 

She couldn’t hold it back anymore. She sobbed, wrapping her arms around Clark’s shoulders and crying into his neck. Clark was at a loss for words. He had hoped, perhaps in a moment of reckless optimism, that Aria’s mother would make an exception for her daughter. But she hadn’t, just like Aria had predicted. So, instead of saying empty words of comfort that would do nothing to change the situation and how much it hurt, he simply held her and let her cry on him. 

 

Kolby shut her suitcase one last time, finally packing away the last few pieces of clothing she had in Wally’s apartment. She was moving out today. Finals were over and Bruce expected her back in Gotham before the week was over. She had made sure she didn’t leave anything behind. Nothing that would give her a reason to come back.

She felt Wally’s presence in the doorway before he said anything. She’d gotten good at that. Not that it was hard, Wally had this electricity about him that was easy to pick up on once you noticed it the first few times.

“You know you can leave stuff here over the summer,” Wally reminded quietly. “I don’t mind.”

“I feel better knowing I have all my stuff with me,” Kolby said, tugging her suitcase off the bed and settling it on the floor.

“So, another summer in Gotham. I’m just waiting for the day you come back with bat wings,” Wally joked, pushing off the door frame and walking into the bedroom. “When can I expect you back? I’ll mark the calendar.”

Kolby shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and Wally’s brows furrowed when he realized she was pointedly not looking at him.

“I won’t be coming back when the summer’s over,” Kolby finally said.

“What do you mean? Are you transferring schools?” Wally asked, stepping closer to Kolby. He stopped when Kolby shifted her suitcase so it sat in front of her, creating a barrier between her and Wally.

“No, it’s not that. …You know those meetings I’ve been going to these past few weeks? I’ve been meeting with my study abroad advisor. I’m going to study abroad with a traveling architecture program next year.”

“Oh,” Wally breathed, surprised that Kolby had kept this from him. “Well, when are you coming back?”

“Not until June,” Kolby explained. “It’s a year long program.”

“And when you get back you’re just going to head right over to Gotham,” Wally guessed, frowning when Kolby nodded. She still wasn’t looking at him.

“There’s…something else.” Wally held his breath as Kolby finally looked up at him, one eye flickering icy blue. “I…I won’t be coming back to live with you when I get back.”

“What?”

“We’ve been together for over a year and a half, Wally, and we’ve lived together for something like ten months,” Kolby felt her voice hitch as she tried to explain everything to him. “And I…I’m still not in love with you.”

Kolby felt her heart sink as she watched the confused smile on Wally’s face fall and his shoulders slump. She knew this was going to be hard. She liked Wally, honestly she did. She cared about him so much…but she couldn’t continue on like this. She didn’t want to hold him back with the hope that maybe she’d love him when she knew, probably from the beginning, that it wasn’t going to happen.

“I told myself…told myself that if I fell in love with you before I left, then I would keep being with you,” Kolby explained, her words catching in her throat. “But…I’m not. And being away from you for so long won’t help. And I can’t keep leading you on, Wally, I refuse to do that to you.”

“I’m willing to wait,” Wally insisted. “I’m willing to wait as long as you need. You know that.”

“No, Wally, it’s not going to happen!” Kolby asserted. “It’s not. I knew it wasn’t going to from the start but I thought…I really wanted it to. I wanted to fall in love with you, Wally, but it didn’t happen. And I refuse to keep you trapped when you could be out there finding someone who really, truly loves you.”

“I’m not trapped!” Wally told her, stepping as close as he could with her suitcase in the way. “I started this relationship. It’s my choice to stay.”

“And it’s my choice to leave,” Kolby whispered, scrubbing at the tears on her cheek. “You’re wonderful, Wally, and I adore you, I do. But I don’t love you. But some one out there does. And you need to go find them. Please.”

Wally felt the fight drain from his body. He’d wanted it too. He’d wanted Kolby to fall in love with him. He honestly thought that maybe she had. He wanted to think all those kisses and all those nights curled up around each other under the blankets had meant something to her. He hoped they did. He knew they did. They just didn’t mean the same thing to her that they did to him. She might not have fallen in love with him, but heaven above he’d fallen in love with her. He’d fallen in love with the way her feathers shimmered in the light and the way her nose scrunched up when he kissed it. He’d fallen in love with the way she counted his freckles and the look on her face when she first woke up in the morning. He’d fallen in love with the way she played the piano and the way her voice got deeper when she was sleepy. He’d fallen for her so hard, harder then he’d meant to. 

Kolby moved around her suitcase, placing a hesitant hand on Wally’s arm. “I’m sorry, Wally.”

Wally shook his head, chasing his sadness away, at least for the moment. “It’s not your fault, pretty birdie. We don’t have any control over who we fall in love with.”

Kolby smiled up at him, a small, sad smile that told of so many imagined what ifs. She stood on her toes, placing one last kiss on Wally’s lips. It was soft and short and sweet, more a whisper than a real kiss. 

“Goodbye, Wally,” she murmured.

“Bye-bye, birdie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you not familiar with Aria, she and Clark had their own little side fic found [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5131340). They'll be playing a march larger role in the proceedings from now on. As for the situation with Wally and Kolby, I had always planned on making their romance short lived, so I hope you don't hate me for what I've done with them. As always, comments and kudos are appreciated. Thank you for your support!


	11. I Think About You in the Summer Time (and all the good times we had, baby)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, this chapter took me much longer to write than I anticipated, partly because of not knowing how to proceed half the time and partly because I did start a new ongoing story in another fandom that I had much more motivation and inspiration to write. I do plan to keep up with both, so don't worry I'm not abandoning Kolby and her Guard any time soon. With that said, do enjoy this chapter and as always, comments and kudos are appreciated!

Kolby lived out of her suitcase for three days before Alfred managed to convince her that he’d really prefer her to use the very nice furniture in her room. It was passed down from Master Bruce’s late grandmother after all. Kolby found it on the bottom of her suitcase as she was unpacking, a shirt that was decidedly not hers. First clue was the fact it was a Superman shirt. Kolby didn’t have a whole lot of hero paraphernalia and pretty much all of what she did have was for the Guard (save for a Nightwing and Robin figurine she’d picked up at her first hero convention and Flash jacket Wally had gotten her). This was not her shirt.

It was Wally’s.

She had no idea how the shirt had gotten mixed up with her things, but there it was. Staring up at her. She lifted it out of her suitcase with shaking hands, feeling the threadbare softness between her fingers. She should call Wally at let him know she had it, she might have left something of hers at the apartment in its place (she had a feeling she was missing one of her many Central State shirts), but she couldn’t bring herself to reach for her phone. Instead, she pulled the polo shirt she was wearing off over her head, tossing to the side and slipping the tee shirt on. It was ridiculously big on her, which was understandable seeing as Wally had been at least half a foot taller than she was. The hem of the shirt skimmed top of her thighs and the sleeves went well past her elbows, but Kolby couldn’t bring herself to care. The shirt was comfy, and still smelled like Wally, even after being buried in her stuff for days. 

She left her room, wandering down the stairs. She ran into Mark and Rachel, who were coming out of the kitchen. Mark eyed the too big shirt on Kolby with interest. It wasn’t unusual for Kolby to wear shirts that were too big on her, but he’d never seen that one before.

“I didn’t know you had a Superman shirt,” he said curiously.

Kolby looked pensive, staring down at the shirt as she tugged on the hem. “It was Wally’s.” 

She hadn’t spoken about the breakup with anyone. She had a feeling they might know anyway, given the uncomfortable expression on Mark’s face and the sympathy on Rachel’s. 

“You’d think you would have at least stolen one of his Morrigan shirts, though,” Rachel joked.

“I’m sure it was an accident,” Mark said quickly, and Kolby laughed at his awkwardness about the whole thing. None of them had really been with people in a romantic sense before now, so dealing with a breakup was new territory for all of them.

“Well, I just hope whatever I left in its place fits him,” Kolby chuckled. She had expected it to be harder. She had expect to cry more than she had. But she was okay. And she would continue to be okay. She felt no regret for any of it, the relationship or the way it ended. In a year she would return to Central and see Wally again and they’d work together once more and life would continue on. 

 

Rory sat atop her school’s roof, Kira on her one side and Serenity on the other. This, according to Sam, was their last summer of training. Luke, Toby, and Tabitha were leaving at the end of summer, like Kolby and Mark and Rachel did before them. At thirteen, the youngest Guard were going to be the only Guard left on the home front. They still had no costumes nor official hero identities, only the simple black domino masks that Sam gave them to wear on training missions. Kira had mentioned feeling as if she was on the edge of some huge precipice and that when summer ended they would fall over the ledge and everything would change, like they did the day Cernunnos and the others saved them from the kidnappers. Rory didn’t know about any sort of edge or precipice, but she did feel like something was going to happen. Something big. Serenity, true to her name, had been very Zen about the whole thing, change was a part of the universe and nothing would happen that they couldn’t handle. 

Rory sighed dramatically and flopped back against the roof, which hurt more than she expected it to, and stared up at the sky as the twilight tinted it orange and lavender. She heard Big Bad growl in the back of her mind. She pushed herself up to see a group of colorfully clad young heroes appear before them in a dissolving orb of darkness. Kira and Serenity tensed beside her, but Rory found her eyes sweeping over each in turn, lingering on the boy in blue and black on the far left.

“Told you they’d be here,” a dark skinned man that looked more machine than human boasted to his companions. “Tim’s intel is never wrong.”

Serenity narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the group. “Can we help you?”

A boy with green skin and wild hair reached out with a clawed hand and a toothy grin. “Hi there, I’m Beastboy. You guys are the new Guard, right?”

“I wouldn’t call us new,” Rory shrugged. “We’ve been going at this for a while. I think Gwydion’s taken to calling us the Young Guard.”

“Who are you?” Kira asked, her voice wavering slightly and Rory reached out to place a stabilizing hand on her foster sister’s arm.

“Well, like I said,” the green boy said, his grin never leaving his face, “I’m Beastboy. This is Cyborg, Raven, Wondergirl, and Blue Beetle. We’re the Teen Titans.”

“Okay?” Serenity’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Again, I ask: Can we help you?”

“We came to ask you if you wanna join the Titans,” Wondergirl said plainly, tossing her impossibly blonde hair over her shoulder.

“Why would we do that?” Rory blurted out. The Titans all stared at her like her question was unthinkable. “I mean, we have our own team already, why would we join yours?”

“Morrigan and Gwydion joined the League, so it’s not like you can’t be part of both,” Cyborg reasoned, crossing his arms over his chest. “Besides, you don’t wanna be stuck in this town forever, do you?”

“First of all,” Serenity went on the defensive, jumping up from her seat, “Don’t insult out town, ye bleedin’ thick!”

“Oooh, Serenity’s throwing out the Irish insults,” Rory snickered softly, barely catching Kira and Blue Beetle’s attention. “She might actually be kind of pissed.”

“Secondly, we’re not trapped here,” Serenity continued her argument. “The Trinity left years ago and the twins and Lugh are leaving once summer ends. The Guard isn’t exclusive to here. And thirdly, Morrigan and Gwydion didn’t join the League because they wanted to. And from what I can tell Morrigan’s not exactly happy to be there anyway.”

Beastboy’s smile fell, his voice much less boisterous when he spoke next, “So…does that mean you don’t want to join the Titans?”

“No, we don’t want to join the Titans,” Serenity announced. “We appreciate the offer, but we have no intention of joining any other teams.” 

“Oh, okay,” he seemed disappointed, but the others didn’t seem to share his feelings, most of their faces remaining impassive. They disappeared in another bubble of darkness, courtesy of Raven.

Serenity sighed, sitting back down on the roof. She frowned and turned to her friends, “I didn’t mean to speak for all of us, sorry. Did you guys want to join? I bet we could ask Tabitha to contact them if you did.”

“Nah, I’m cool,” Rory shrugged and Kira shook her head in response. “I wonder why they wanted us to join, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Serenity admitted. “The Titans are pretty heavily associated with the League though, I wonder if they were acting on the League’s behalf.”

“We’ll never know now,” Kira murmured, reaching back for her slushie and taking a drink.

Rory frowned at that. She didn’t like the idea of not ever seeing Blue Beetle again, he seemed cool. Or at least his armor did. And he hadn’t seemed like such a bad guy. 

“Rory,” the red head looked up at Serenity, who was now standing. “C’mon, its time to go.”

“Yeah, alright.”

 

“You want me to give you what?” Tabitha turned away from the bank of computer monitors to give Rory a look that somehow mixed concern and ‘are you shitting me’ perfectly.

“Blue Beetle’s personal file. I know you can get it from the Bat Computer.”

“Why do you want it?”

Rory paused for a moment. Why did she want it? Because he was interesting, right? And because she wanted to know why the titans approached them. 

“Reasons,” she shrugged.

Tabitha rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Give me a minute and I’ll get it for you. But not everything!”

 

Rory sat on her bed, staring at Rhyme. The tiny bird peeped up at her impatiently, waiting to be sent on her mission. Rory inhaled deeply, imagining the image of Blue Beetle’s human face from Batman’s file. Rhyme tittered excitedly and zoomed out the open window, going faster than a tiny song bird had any right to go. But she was a magical bird on a very important mission for Rory, so it was fine. She flew as fast as she could to El Paso. Rory knew Blue Beetle was often sighted around there, so it only made sense that his secret identity lived there too. She waited and waited. Rhyme would find him soon, she knew it.

Jaime Reyes practically fell out of his bed when he heard the thunk against his window. He looked up to see a small, oddly translucent bird sitting on his window sill, pecking at the glass insistently. He walked over cautiously, earning an excited peep from this tiny bird. He slid open his window, kneeling down to stare at the bird on an even level.

“Hey there, little guy,” he greeted softly. “Whatcha doin’?”

The song bird opened its tiny beak and a young woman’s voice spoke. “Hi, Beetle!”

“What the hell?” Jaime jumped back, tripping over some unseen object on the floor (probably clothes he was supposed to put up days ago) and falling back on his bed.

“Sorry, that was probably pretty weird, huh,” the bird said, fluttering into the room and landing on Jaime’s knee. “It’s me, Rory! We met a few days ago.”

Jaime stared at the bird on his knee. “Who?”

“You and the Titans approached some girls earlier this week about joining, remember? I was the red head!”

“You…turn into birds? Ghost lookin’ birds?”

“No, silly!” Rory giggled and Rhyme puffed up her feathers. “Rhyme is one of my animal familiars I summon. Cool thing about her is I can communicate through her. Also she’s like, stupid fast.”

“That is kinda cool…wait a minute!” Jaime shook his head when the realization hit him. “How’d you find out where I live?”

“Tabitha hacked the Bat Computer, duh,” Rory teased. “Though really she doesn’t even have to hack it, we just have access to the files. Guess that means Bats does actually like us.”

Jaime couldn’t help but be more than a little weirded out by the blasé way Rory admitted that. “Okay…why?”

“Idunno. You seemed pretty cool and I wanted to get to know you, I guess.” The bird ruffled her feathers in what Jaime assumed was the bird version of a shrug. “I don’t know a lot of other heroes my age. I just. I wanted to be friends?”

There was a pause. Jaime really didn’t know what to say to that and Rory was obviously waiting for some kind of reply. Rhyme hopped back and forth on Jaime’s knee impatiently until finally she reached forward and pecked him harshly. Not enough to draw blood, but certainly enough to hurt and spur him into action.

“Yeah, I mean, that’s cool. But there’s gotta be a better way of doing this then via ghost bird,” Jaime blurted. “You got a skype or something? A phone number?”

Rory laughed carelessly. “Yeah, I guess that would be easier. Easier to explain to the folks anyway. One sec, let me get a piece of paper to write your contact info on.”

Jaime still couldn’t believe what was happening. Were all the members of the Guard this weirdly persistent? He just hoped his mom didn’t come in and find him talking to a ghost bird. He had a hard enough time explaining the alien weapon attached to his spine. 

“Alright!” Jaime’s attention was drawn back at the perky tone of Rory’s voice. “Lay them deets on me!” 

 

Morrigan cursed to herself as she flew through the muggy July air towards the location of Red Robin’s signal. Red Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood went missing just a few hours earlier, just after patrol begun, and the team could only hope that they were still alive. She saw Robin and Donn just below her, swinging from their grapple lines. Batman and Gwydion were ahead, speeding through the streets in the Batmobile. Morrigan cursed again and beat her wings harder, racing towards the dockside warehouse Oracle had tracked Red Robin’s signal to. 

It was chaos when she arrived. Mobsters ran frantically from the warehouse, Batman and Gwydion chasing after them.

“We’ve got this, go take care of the boys!” Gwydion shouted over his shoulder at her. 

Morrigan entered the warehouse, the dimly lit building mostly empty. She saw Nightwing and the others tied to a pole, bruised and bleeding, a metal pipe rolling slowly next to them. Robin stood over a man, a gun in his hand.

“Did you do this?” Robin demanded loudly and Morrigan could see that his whole body was shaking.

“So what if I did?” Morrigan was amazed at the mobster’s stupid bravery. “Everyone in town knows that Batman and his bitches don’t kill.”

“Did you DO THIS?” Robin shouted again, hand gripping the gun tighter.

“Yeah, I did,” the mobster spat, a cruel grin on his face. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“I’m going to kill you!” the small hero ground out, finger moving to the trigger.

“Don’t Robin!” Nightwing shouted, his voice hoarse. “He’s not worth it!”

“You’re better than this, baby bat,” Red Hood gasped out, alerting everyone to his broken ribs. 

“What’re you gonna do, pipsqueak?” the mobster challenged. 

Morrigan stepped forward, moving to reach out to the youngest hero, only for Donn to beat her to it.

“Robin.” The boy twitched at the sound of Donn’s soft voice and her gentle hand on his shoulder. “Give me the gun.” 

Robin trembled and clenched his teeth, his finger twitching on the trigger. Everyone in the room held their breath for one long, tense moment before Robin let out a pained scream and practically threw the gun into Donn’s hand. Donn straightened to her full height and pushed Robin back into Morrigan’s open arms. She held the boy gently, her wings wrapping around the two of them to muffle Robin’s teary-eyed hiccups.

The mobster chuckled. “See, what I’d tell you. No balls on you freaks. I-“

The room echoed with the sound of gunfire as Donn pointed the gun at the man and pulled the trigger with no hesitation. 

“Donn!” Red Robin shouted in disbelief. 

Donn glanced over her shoulder at Morrigan and addressed her leader coolly. “Morrigan?” 

Morrigan nodded and watched carefully as Donn tossed the gun into the air. Morrigan lifted a single finger and froze the gun midair. A flick of her finger sent the gun sailing through the air at top speed towards the wall. The gun shattered on impact.

“Why did you do that?” Nightwing questioned as Donn approached.

“A boy Robin’s age should not have to choose between defending his family and following some stupidly strict moral code,” Donn said plainly as she untied the ropes that bound the three men to the pole. “So I chose for him.”

“Fuck,” Red Robin hissed, shakily getting to his feet and massaging his wrists. “What are we going to tell Batman?”

“Who says he needs to know?” Morrigan argued softly, leading a still sniffling Robin to help support Nightwing as she moved to support a wheezing Red Hood.

The six shared a moment of contemplation before silently agreeing that perhaps, Batman didn’t need to know about this one.


	12. Interlude (Can You Tell Me Your Name, Girl?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the lack of activity on this particular story. Transitional chapters are hard for me to write. What's more, my other story has been getting much more traffic and feedback and considering I'm the kind of person that thrives on feedback, it's no surprise it's been getting more attention from me. I will continue to write for Kolby and the others, but unless I start getting a similar amount of feedback here as I do on my other story, it will be at a much slower pace. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

August in Kansas was disgustingly hot, which made the fact their winters were so cold twice as awful, but Wally didn’t mind. He’d lived in Kansas all his life. He was used to it. What he wasn’t used to was how quiet his apartment was without Kolby there. Kolby herself wasn’t a loud person, at least not most of the time, but he missed the sound of her feet padding across the floor, her quiet giggles when she watched something particularly funny on the internet or the sound of her grabbing a snack from the cupboards. He missed the background noise, mainly. 

Wally shuffled through his drawers, trying to find some shirt he hadn’t worn a hundred times already. He was starting to think he needed to go shopping. Then he saw it. A dark maroon color he didn’t recognize. He pulled the shirt up from underneath the others he had haphazardly folded away and gasped.

He knew the shirt. It was Kolby’s. One of the many she’d gotten for free from the university over the years. It had been probably three sizes too big for her but it was the only size they had left at the time, at least that’s the excuse Kolby had given him when he asked. The long sleeves would probably be too warm for August, but Wally found himself slipping it on anyway. It was just a tad too small, the sleeves didn’t reach his wrists and when he lifted his arms he exposed a large expanse of his stomach but he didn’t really care. 

His phone jingled in the front room. Who was sending him a text this early on a Saturday? The only reason he was up this early was because if he didn’t get out an jog before 9 it would be far too warm to go outside and his whole day would be ruined. It was from Dick. A photo link and a caption that read: ‘Looks like Kolby’s classmate likes taking pictures. Isn’t that your shirt?’

Wally tapped the link with his thumb and was greeted with a photo album that was uploaded not even an hour ago. The first picture was a group of students, backpacks thrown over shoulders and carry-on luggage cluttered around them. Kolby stood towards the far edge of the group, smiling at the camera and wearing a Superman shirt that was far too big for her. That was most definitely his shirt. 

He flipped through the album, stopping whenever he say Kolby in a picture. One had her sitting beside a man with slightly graying hair, looking over his shoulder at a book they seemed to be discussing. Another one was a selfie she looked displeased to get caught in. The woman taking it beamed brightly at the camera, pointing enthusiastically at her own Batman shirt. Standing with Kolby just behind her was a tall young man in a Wonder Woman shirt, who seemed pleased as punch at the realization all three of them shared. A final photo had Kolby standing with a group of others, all in super hero shirts. Next to her stood an excited looking young woman in a Morrigan shirt. With them was the young man in Wonder Woman’s colors, the selfie taker in the Batman shirt, and another young woman with wild teal hair and a Flash shirt. The caption read ‘Our very own Justice League’. Wally chuckled. At least she was in good company.

 

J’onn walked silently beside Kolby, reading over the paperwork she had handed to him. Because of the nomadic nature of her study abroad program, she had requested a leave of absence from her duties until the program was over. J’onn had no issue with granting her request, but her paperwork had to be in order. 

“How is the program?” he asked casually, turning towards the teleporter room.

“It’s going well so far. We’re in Peru right now but in a few days we’re going to be traveling to Chile. We’ve already been split up into study groups, you know. I’m with the rest of what Bridgette, she’s our grad student, calls the Justice League. You know, those kids who also wore super hero shirts that first day at the Airport.”

J’onn let Kolby ramble on about her studies, it was nice to see the young woman genuinely excited about something. She always seemed a little angry or upset when he caught her without the companionship of Green Arrow or Black Canary or Spectrum or Gwydion. She seemed to have few friends on the Watch Tower and very little drive to forge any bonds beyond what she already had. 

They entered the transporter room just as someone appeared to be beaming up. The confused and almost panicked actions of the technicians drew their attention.

“What is wrong?” J’onn asked, floating over to the control panel. 

“Someone is coming up but they didn’t have clearance and we have no idea where they’re coming from!” the young technician shouted. “Oh god, we’re being attacked.”

Kolby stiffened, shifting into a fighting stance as the person on the transporter pad took shape. It was a young girl, tiny in stature with her head covered by the white hood of her bolero jacket.

“Morrigan!” the girl greeted cheerfully, tossing back her hood.

“Kira?” Kolby exclaimed, dropping her fighting stance. “What are you doing here? You can’t just come up without telling anyone, you’ll freak people out!”

“Sorry, but Scathatch finally gave us our uniforms and well…” Kira’s pale cheeks turned pink. “I wanted to show off to J’onn.”

Kolby couldn’t stop the fond smile that spread across her lips. 

“So, how do I look?” Kira asked, giving Kolby and J’onn a small twirl.

“Like a thistle,” Kolby told her, looking at the deep purple jumpsuit Kira had on under her white jacket.

“A thistle?” Kira echoed in confusion.

“Scotland’s national flower. It’s a compliment, trust me.”

“Oh, good!”

J’onn had yet to say anything about Kira’s new uniform. Instead, he reached out and gentle took a few strands of Kira’s now purple hair between his fingers. Kira stopped, Kolby didn’t even know if she was breathing, and turned her grey gaze to the Martian.

“Do you like it?” she asked quietly, the rose color returning to her cheeks.

J’onn smiled. “It suits you.”

Kolby stood by for a short while before deciding the moment had gone on for long enough and coughed loudly to break the tension. “As nice as this reunion is, I need to get back to Peru. I’m pretty sure my roommate will be getting up soon and I kinda need to be in the room when she does.”

“Of course,” J’onn acquiesced, stepping away from Kira and letting her hair fall from his fingertips. 

“Oh, before you go,” Kira pulled out her phone from some inner pocket on her jacket. “Do you know if Billy is here? He doesn’t have a phone that receives picture texts and Serenity really wanted him to see her uniform.”

“No idea, little one, you’ll have to go looking.” Kolby shrugged.

Kira nodded, rushing off into the Watch Tower proper, leaving J’onn and Kolby behind. Kolby side eyed J’onn suspiciously.

“Four more years, Martian.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Kolby shrugged casually and turned on her heel towards the transporter pad. “Oh, nothing. I’m sure the time will pass in a blink of an eye for you anyway.”

 

Wally hated not knowing what to do with himself. It was even worse now that Kolby was gone. There was only so much on the TV that could keep his interest and when a patrol of the city took maybe five minutes, things got stale fast. 

He threw his head back with a groan, turning to look around the apartment for something (ANYTHING) that would hold his attention. A piece of paper stuck to his fridge with a colorful magnet caught his eye. He zipped over to his kitchen, recognizing the paper now that he got a good look at it. It was a piece of Kolby’s stationary, an intricate design of a black bird in the top right corner. On, in Kolby’s messy handwriting, was a list of books. 

Kolby had always been an avid reader, absolutely devouring books in her free time (what little she had of it). Wally hadn’t read a book for fun since high school took the fun out of reading for him, but when Kolby found a book she particularly liked she’d write it down for him, in case he ever felt like getting back into reading. The list had stayed on his fridge even after Kolby had left, just another small, lingering memory. 

Well…it wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

 

Wally hadn’t been to a library since college, but he didn’t remember the Central City library being quite this big. Had they remodeled recently? Wally reminded himself to pay more attention to those sorts of things. Kolby’s list tucked safely in his pocket, he took the steps up to the front doors two at a time. The automatic doors slid silently open for him and he couldn’t hold back a whistle at the impressiveness of the building’s interior. The front foyer was open to the two floors above, sunlight streaming in from the skylights. It was far more modern than he expected.

He sauntered up to the reference desk, hands stuffed into his pockets. He stopped just short of running into the granite countertop, still trying to absorb as much information about his surroundings as he could.

“What can I do for you?” Wally blinked at the sweet lit of an unknown voice. He glanced down at the figure behind the counter, eyes widening at what he saw.

A young woman just about his age stared up at him with big hazel eyes behind the thickest, Clark Kentiest glasses he’d seen since the Big Blue Boy Scout himself. Thick, pale auburn hair was tied back in two braids that fell down her back. Her smile was polite, though the confused tilt of her head made Wally hyper aware of how awkward he was being.

“Oh, um, a friend of mine gave me some book recommendations…” Wally fished Kolby’s list from his pocket and held it out to the librarian. “I was wondering if you had any…”

“Well, let’s take a look!” the young woman chirped, taking the list with gentle fingers. She scanned the list and turned back to her desktop, typing away. “We probably have most of these in the system, but they’re pretty popular so they might be checked out. But I can always place a hold on them for you if you want.”

“Oh, um, I probably need a library card for that…” Wally muttered, scratching at his nose nervously.

“Yes, that’s true,” the librarian agreed. “Would you like to sign up for one? If you live in Central City it’s completely free.”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s do that.” Wally nodded vigorously. “What do I need to do?”

The librarian, her smile brighter that it had been before, reached down into a drawer beside her and pulled out a short form. “I just need you to fill this out and I need to see your driver’s license or any other form of photo ID and proof of address.”

Wally was on autopilot as he filled out the form. He kept glancing up at the librarian, trying to find a name tag or something. He frowned when he couldn’t see one.

“Here you go, Wally,” the librarian said with a smile, sliding his new library card across the counter to him. “Now let’s see if we have those books for you!”

“It’s not really fair that you know my name but I don’t know yours,” Wally said, a hint of a pout in his voice.

The librarian giggled. “I’m Olive. Now it looks like we have several of these in. If you’ll follow me.”

Olive was fairly small, the same height as Kolby if Wally remembered correctly (and he probably did), but she walked fast. Wally had to trot to keep up with her, which was saying something. He followed her as she weaved in and out of the shelves, watched as she stood on her tip toes to reach the top most shelves, and stood by, arms open, as she handed him copies of as many of the books on Kolby’s list as she could find. 

“Is there anything else I can do for you today?” Olive asked as she led him back to the front desk to check out.

“Well…um…when else do you work? I haven’t read for fun in forever and well, you know what I’ll be reading so if I want some recommendations…”

Olive smiled innocently, though something told Wally she saw through his excuse. “I’m here every week day from ten to six. Usually I’m not here on the weekends, but you’re lucky I was covering for Susan today.” Wally felt his face heat up when she winked cheekily at him, her freckled nose scrunching a little bit. 

“R-right,” Wally mumbled. He cleared his throat audibly and made a hasty retreat. “Thanks for your help today, Olive. I’ll see you around.”

“Come back soon, Wally!”

‘You can count on it.’


	13. How We Became pt. 1 - Morrigan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this chapter as sort of an origin story for Morrigan a while ago but somehow I never got around to posting it. I have one for Gwydion as well so I'll post that one too. Hopefully eventually I'll have a chapter for Donn as well and maybe one about how Morrigan met Dick and Damian. Until then, hopefully this answers a few questions about how Morrigan got her powers and how the Guard got it's start before it was officially the Guard.

Kolby really wished she had a car. It would save her the trouble of walking home in the rain. Her umbrella was nice and all, but it didn’t stop her jeans from getting absolutely soaked in the cold puddles. Thunder rolled in the sky and Kolby upped the pace. She did not want to be caught out in a thunderstorm. 

She screamed in fear as lightning stuck near by, just barely missing her. They air smelled like it was burning and static was everywhere, she could feel it on her skin. She ran the last two blocks home and she was positively soaked when she finally got there. She could still feel the static running along her skin. She felt both too hot and too cold at the same time, it was an odd sensation. She hoped she wasn’t getting sick. 

She changed out of her soaked clothes into her pajamas, figuring there was no way her parents were going to drag her out into the storm. She couldn’t shake the odd sensation of the warring feelings of too hot and too cold. She fell into bed much earlier than she usually would have that night.

That night she dreamed of witches being burned atop blazing pyres and winged goddesses of fire and ice and lightning.

 

Kolby felt infinitely better the next morning when she woke up for school. Like usual, the Texas heat had removed any evidence of the storm from the day before. She stood at her bus stop, waiting patiently for the bus to arrive, headphones blocking out the noise around her. 

Except for the neighborhood’s resident jerk pushing around a tiny freshman like this was some stereotypical high school drama. She tried her hardest to ignore the altercation, hoped to high heaven that someone would step in or the asshole would get bored and leave the kid alone. But the bus was coming up the road and the guy still hadn’t stopped.

“Hey, asshole!” Kolby shouted, putting herself between the bully and the freshman. “Leave the kid alone.”

“What are you gonna do about it?” God, Kolby hated this guy and she didn’t even know his name.

“Just back off!” Kolby demanded, shoving the guy, hard. She felt a surge of heat run through her body, and the guy stumbled back several more feet than he should have, a confused look on his face. The air around them was warmer than it had been a second ago, which didn’t make any sense but Kolby chalked it up to adrenaline or whatever. The bully probably would have retaliated, but the bus arrived and Kolby was quick to climb aboard, sitting the freshman in the seat in front of her and glaring at the asshole as he passed them by.

 

“It was really fucking weird,” Kolby told her friend Mark as they walked down the hall. It was after school, Kolby had stayed behind for practice with the orchestra and Mark had stuck around so she’d have a ride home. 

Kolby couldn’t remember how long she’d known Mark. It’d been before high school at least, he used to be in orchestra with her in middle school. He’d played violin just long enough to get his fine art’s credit out of the way and then dropped the hell out. They had stayed close over the years, which Kolby was pretty thankful for. She didn’t have a lot of friends, just close acquaintances and classmates she got along with.

“Sounds it,” Mark hummed in agreement, fishing his keys out of his pocket. “Are you sure you didn’t get struck by lightning last night?”

“Pretty sure…”

“Hey, bitch!”

The duo turned to see the same guy from Kolby’s bus stop marching up to them, flanked by two friends. Kolby immediately put herself between the bigger guys and her friend. 

“Did you really think I was gonna let you get away with embarrassing me this morning?” he asked, a sneer on his face.

“I shoved you because you were being a dick,” Kolby corrected him. “I don’t really count that as embarrassing you. If anything, you embarrassed yourself.”

That, apparently, wasn’t the answer the guy had been looking for. He reared back, fist ready to punch Kolby’s lights out. She threw her arms up to protect her face and squeezed her eyes shut. Mark made a noise of surprise and Kolby hoped the other two weren’t going after her friend. Then she heard the bully make a sound of pain and shock. She opened her eyes and lowered her arms just a tad. 

She stared in shock at the small wall of ice that had somehow appeared before her to defend her from getting punched in the face. She turned to Mark and made vague gestures that asked ‘Did I do that?’ and Mark just nodded yes. 

She grabbed his arm and they booked it out of the school. She hoped to god those boys would come the wrong conclusion and assume someone else had summoned the ice. They reached Mark’s car, thankfully, without another incident. Kolby exhaled forcefully, hiding her face in her hands as she sat in Mark’s passenger seat. 

“What was that?” Mark asked, starting the car and backing out of his parking space. 

“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know!” Kolby’s voice rose in volume as panic set into her gut. “Do…do you think that weird heat flash from this morning was me too? Holy shit, what’s wrong with me?”

“Wrong with you? There’s nothing wrong with you!” Mark insisted. “You’re a metahuman! That’s fucking awesome!”

A metahuman? Like the Justice League? That couldn’t be right. She wasn’t some super powered being. At best she was Kolby Morgan, sixteen year old nerd. 

“Imagine all the good you could do,” Mark said, thinking aloud. “We don’t have any super heroes around here.”

“I can’t be a hero, Mark.”

“What? Why not?” he demanded, trying hard to keep his concentration on the road.

“Because I could die!” Kolby shouted.

“Yeah, but you’d be brought back!” Mark argued. “Like every time Batman supposedly died and then came back like 3 months later.”

Kolby gripped her knees, her hands shaking and her knuckles white. Could she really bring herself to risk her life for total strangers? She wasn’t brave, she wasn’t selfless. Not like a hero needed to be.

“Look,” Mark spoke softly, “I’m gonna set up a hideout for you. Whether you decide to be a hero or not, you need to learn how to control your powers. And you need a safe place to do that. So you just leave that to me.”

 

Kolby was not used to sneaking out at night. She never had a reason to before. She didn’t have some secret boyfriend that her parents didn’t know about and she wasn’t invited to any illicit parties or anything, so why sneak out at all. Especially when the house had wifi.

But Mark knocked on her window one night at like 10:30 after her parents were already asleep and she probably should have been too. She climbed gingerly out of her window, thankful that her house was only one story. Mark’s truck was parked just down the street and he told her to climb in. Of course, he didn’t bother to tell her where the hell they were going. They drove through town, past the familiar shops and fast food joints to the other side of town that Kolby didn’t know very well. He turned off onto a small side road, towards a small set of uninhabited buildings.

“So, where are we exactly?” Kolby asked warily.

“This area was built to be a warehouse district a few years back before the money fell through,” Mark explained. “They were hyped up of these super environmentally friendly things with solar panels and off grid generators and rain water collection and shit like that. Mostly I just like it because it’s off grid cause I do not have the money to pay for the electricity needed to power this place.”

He pressed a button on a random remote Kolby hadn’t noticed and one of the loading dock garages opened up for them. Mark killed the engine and closed the door, leaving the garage nearly pitch black save for four tiny streams of light coming in from windows near the top of the wall. Mark motioned for her to follow him up a flight of stairs to a door that she assumed led into the warehouse proper.

The place was huge. Bigger than it needed to be by a long shot. There was a loft that ran around the parameter of the building, and Kolby could already see the computers Mark set up on the other side. The floor on the level below was covered in sparring mats like the ones the wrestlers use at the high school. There were punching bags and a makeshift firing range and gymnastics equipment and Kolby was just overwhelmed.

“How did you afford all this?” Kolby asked, staring at the base in awe.

“I asked my buddy Lance and his shop class friends for a few favors. You’d be amazed what you can buy with some pizza and crappy tacos.”

“Yeah, okay, but that doesn’t explain the computers,” Kolby pointed out.

Mark grinned sheepishly. “I may or may not have hacked the Wayne Tech website and got me some really nice computers for REAL cheap.” 

“I would feel sorry for them, but it’s Wayne Enterprises so I really don’t.”

Mark laughed and pointed out the locker room and kitchenette thing that sat off to the side of the main floor. Kolby was impressed by Mark’s preparedness, even if she was fairly certain they wouldn’t be spending that much time there.

“So let’s see what you’re working with,” Mark said, pushing Kolby towards the stairs. He went and positioned himself at the computer. Kolby didn’t really know what he was doing up there, but she assumed he was some how monitoring the situation.

She shrugged off her hoodie, leaving her in her tank top and sweatpants she was going to wear to bed before Mark ruined that plan. She bounced on the balls of her feet punching and kicking some invisible opponent to get herself pumped up. She tried to remember all those feelings from the day she may or may not have been struck by lightning. The cycle of too hot-too cold and the tingling sensation of static running along her skin. Turning to look at the targets that lined the wall, she extended her hand and imagined ice, cold and sharp. She squeaked and jumped when four small bolts of ice did shoot out of the air in front of her hand and land in the target’s inner rings. Mark whooped in the loft above, obviously excited about the whole thing. 

The air just in front of Kolby’s hand felt cold against her palm and it made her shiver. She remembered the hot air from that first day, wondered if she had pushed a little hard, had been a little more angry, if she could have set the boy on fire. She imagined the heat against her hand, imagined the red and orange and yellow of the fire. She stared at her palm and willed it to happen. 

There was a spark. She thought harder and harder. Another squeak accompanied the ignition of a small ball of flame, floating just above her palm. She almost panicked trying to figure out how to extinguish the fire, only to have it go out on its own. 

She had ice. And she had fire. But what about that static? She stared at her fingers, remembering the lightning and the tingling that ran under her skin the rest of the day. She could feel the tingling run down her arm as she thrust her hand out towards the target and snapped her fingers. Lightning shot out and licked at the bulls eye, making Kolby’s hair stand on end.

Mark rolled his chair to the railing of the loft and looked down at Kolby with an almost disbelieving grin. “Did you just pull a Roy Mustang?”

Kolby just bounced and grinned manically back at him. “With freaking LIGHTNING!”

She could feel something itching at her shoulder blades, but she ignored it. She threw fireballs at the targets. She built walls of ice and tore them down again. Lightning flickered over her fingertips. She got caught up in the excitement of the whole thing and didn’t pay attention when her back suddenly felt heavier until Mark said something.

“Hey…Kolby,” he called down from the loft, concern laced in his voice, “Have you noticed the wings yet?”

Kolby stopped. She turned her head slowly to look over her shoulder. Her jaw dropped at the sight of beautiful black feathers. Her wings extended, her feathers shimmering in the light. 

“Holy shit,” she whispered.

“Do you think you can fly?” Mark asked.

Kolby flapped her wings slowly, more to get a feel for the movement then to actually attempt flying. “Well, I’d think so. Be kind of stupid to have them if I couldn’t use them.”

“Better not let an ostrich hear you say that,” Mark joked.

“The ostrich can fucking deal with it.” 

The new additions to her anatomy felt strange, but not unnatural. It almost felt like they were supposed to be there, but just hadn’t been able to before now. She beat her wings harder, gasping when she felt her feet lift off the ground. It was exhausting, she could feel herself getting short of breath the higher she tried to lift herself. She’d have to work on that. 

She also needed to work on her landings, she discovered when she tried to land and ended up falling on her ass. She may or may not have thrown a snow ball at Mark when he laughed at her. 

She had no idea how late it was, but she was getting tired and she really needed sleep. This was when she started to worry about her wings. Were they permanent? If so, how the hell was she going to hide them? That itching sensation between her should blades came back and she shuddered as she felt her wings retreat into her back. Oh, that was going to take some getting used to. At least she didn’t have to worry about having to stuff her wings under her sweaters or whatever. 

Mark looked at the clock on his screen and called to Kolby over the railing, “It’s like 1 in the morning. Let’s get you home.”

 

Kolby showed up to their hide out (they were going to have to come up with a name for it) before Mark a week later, a gym bag thrown over her shoulder. Today she was going to try going on patrol. She hadn’t fully mastered the whole flying thing yet and it was still really tiring, but there were plenty of buildings around she could rest on if she got tired. She ducked into the locker room. She wanted to change into her costume before Mark got there. She’d worked hard on it, though it still looked like something she’d just thrown together (which it technically was). She slipped into her black hoodie, hoping the open back wouldn’t get too cold. She was happy with how the stripes of red, blue, and yellow on her right sleeve had turned out, seeing as it had been her first time sewing. They didn’t look great, but they also didn’t look like they were going to fall off any second so she’d take what she could get. The black jeans she’d bought were comfortable enough that she wouldn’t feel like crap after running around in them for hours on end. 

She heard the garage door open and she pulled her hood up over her head and exited the locker room to greet Mark. He grinned at her costume.

“How do I look?” she asked, giving a quick twirl.

“Like a hoodlum,” he replied, coming down the stairs to join her.

“Well, I’m a vigilante high school student with no job and very little cash. It’s not like I’m gonna look like Wonder Woman or whatever.”

“Fair enough,” Mark acquiesced, rummaging through his bag for something. “But that hood isn’t gonna hide your identity very well. The wind will push it back. Here, take these.”

They looked like sunglasses or a visor. The material was reflective but Kolby could see right through them when she put them on. Mark quickly explained all the features, including the bazillion different kinds of vision the visor gave her and the nanocamera and comlink (so he could keep in touch and see what was going on in case he needed to advise her). It was an impressive piece of tech, but then again Mark was an impressive technician. 

Kolby activated the camera and comlink and went to stand out in front of the warehouse (seriously, they needed to name it). She inhaled deeply to calm herself. She felt her wings emerge from her back and she beat them experimentally once, twice, before taking off into the night. 

She flew a few blocks, landing heavily on top of the local grocery store. She expected her first night to be pretty quiet, and it certainly started off that way. She rested for a short moment before taking off again, soaring over a residential area and taking another rest on a house’s roof. She couldn’t wait until she could fly more than a few minutes before she ran out of breath. She took off again, watching the ground below her for any signs of trouble. So far, so good. 

Then she saw two teenaged girls being harassed by a group of older men. She let herself fall a short way before she dropped do the ground, immediately regretting not trying to soften her landing as pain shot up to her knees but she ignored it as she put herself between the girls and the men.

“I’d like it you left these girls alone,” she said with as much confidence as she could muster, extending her wings to shield the girls from the men and to make herself look as intimidating as she could. 

“Oh yeah?” one of them drawled, getting right up in her face (and Kolby could smell the alcohol on his breath). “And who are you to boss us around like that, huh?”

Kolby paused. She hadn’t actually thought of a name to give herself. She saw one of the girls behind pull out her phone. Great, now she was being recorded.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Kolby said, trying to stall. But then something in the back of her mind whispered a name to her, and it sounded good enough to her. She squared her shoulders, and looked the men directly in the eyes and projected her voice so the girl could hear it on her recording. “I am the Morrigan, goddess of war and protector of young women. So, I’ll say it again: back off.”

“Oooh, look of this boys,” another man laughed obnoxiously. “This here little missy thinks she’s Wonder Woman or something. How about we show her how much she’s not.”

“I warned you,” Kolby told them mildly. She threw her fist forward, sending small bullets of ice flying towards the men, who stumbled back in surprise. The girls behind her gasped and she turned to them briefly.

“You two get out of here. Get home and stay safe, okay?” she told them. “I’ll be around from now on, but I can’t always be there to help you out, so be careful, alright.”

The two nodded and turned to run off down the sidewalk, the girl recording her on her phone running quite a bit slower than her friend.

The men moved to advance towards her again, but Kolby summoned a line of fire before her, startling the men.

“Go tell your friends that there’s a new hero in town, and she’s not gonna stand for you assholes messing with women anymore!”

 

“So you’re internet famous now,” Mark teased as he and Kolby walked down the hall of their far too crowded high school.

It’d been three days since Kolby’s hero premiere, just the weekend. The girl she had saved had posted the video of her to the internet (because of course she had) and it had gone viral. News outlets had picked it up and speculations were flying everywhere. People wondered where she had come from, whether or not the League knew about her (they probably did now, thanks internet), if the wings meant she was related to Hawk girl. People had started coming out at night to see if they could spot her, but their town was pretty big and Kolby, with her inexperience flying, couldn’t patrol the whole thing every night. She’d been caught on camera once or twice since the original video had been posted, but it wasn’t anything substantial, just enough that people knew she did in fact exist. 

“I wouldn’t call it that,” Kolby said quietly. It wasn’t fame as it was a flash obsession, like the sneezing baby panda or something. Eventually, she hoped, it would all calm down and she could go about her hero business in relative peace. 

She was glad to have Mark at her side. She couldn’t imagine trying to do the hero thing on her own. Maybe that’s why Batman had Robin and the League had each other. She was sure her friend would end up being invaluable in the future. But for now, she just had to get through another week of school.


	14. How We Became pt. 2 - Gwydion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter I wrote long ago and never got around to publishing, this time focusing on Gwydion.

The warehouse was quiet. Kolby was out patrolling, like she usually was, but it was a peaceful night and Mark had to find something to do to occupy his time.

So he trained. He’d been trying himself to join Kolby in the field for months. He ran laps, he did chin ups, he lifted weights, he learned bits and pieces of a dozen different martial art styles. He built gadgets to stuff into his pockets and even gotten himself a costume. It was simple, like Kolby’s, but it was a costume nonetheless. He was going surprise her one night, maybe jump into a fight when she’d gotten herself in over her head. He hadn’t planned that far ahead.

He grunted in concentration, lifting one hand off the floor and balancing on the other, refusing to let himself fall. His arm screamed at him, but he pressed on. He didn’t have powers to rely on, so he had to be physically perfect. Or as close as he could get. It helped that he had already been pretty physically fit from track and field, but it wasn’t quite enough. 

Static came in over his ear piece, Kolby needed to talk to him.

“What’s up, Kolby?”

“What’s the best way to get away from cops?”

Mark dropped his legs and stood up straight, confusion etched on his face. “Why are you trying to get away from cops?”

“I tried to help them out with a robbery and one of the guys said something really rude and tried to get handsy so I slapped him and called him a sexist pig so now he wants me for assaulting an officer.”

“So you ran away?”

“No!” Kolby sounded insulted. “I flew away. Because I can do that.”

“Are they even following you?”

“The one guy is. I think the others knew I was in the right because they didn’t do anything when I slapped the guy in the first place. Do you think he’d get in trouble if I told them I was 16? You know, for like soliciting sex from a minor?”

“I have no idea. Where are you?”

“On top of the high school.”

“Stay there, I’ll be there in ten.” 

He considered meeting her in costume, but this wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind for his dramatic reveal, so he decided against it. Kolby was lucky his bike wasn’t ready yet and he had to use his truck. He really wanted to ride his bike, but using it to pick up someone who was technically on the run from the cops was probably a bad idea.

It was something like 2 in the morning, so the streets were empty as he drove down to the high school. He crossed paths with the cop that was out looking for Kolby once, heading in the opposite direction of the high school, so at least the pick up would be safe. He parked in one of the staff spots right up next to the school.

“Yo, I’m here,” he spoke into his ear piece. “And I passed the guy on the way here, he’s totally lost your trail.”

“Oh thank god.” Kolby landed heavily in the bed of his truck. “I am so sick of tonight, I just want to go home and sleep.”

“Away we go then,” Mark chuckled, pulling out of the parking space (thankful that Kolby had decided to lay down in the bed so he could see).

 

It was the middle of December before Mark got his chance to present himself as the hero he imagined he could be. Kolby was out on patrol, as she usually was, when she called in something about Mark possibly calling the cops for her (and making sure to ask that Officer Harris didn’t come). When Mark looked over to the monitor that streamed the feed from Kolby’s camera, he understood why she asked for back up. What was going to be a simple drug bust had turned into something of a brawl, with Kolby being severely out numbered.

Mark threw on his costume, mask hiding his eyes from the world. He revved his bike as he sped through the town, ducking and weaving around the few cars that were still on the road. He found Morrigan huddled behind a dumpster, using it as a shield from the men’s guns and knives.

“Morrigan!” 

Morrigan looked up and gaped at Mark as he drove towards her. She dove to the side as he revved his bike and jumped the dumpster, landing in the middle of the mob of drug dealers and scattering them. 

“Morrigan!” he called again.

Morrigan jumped over the dumpster, creating a wall of ice around them. She turned to Mark.

“So what am I supposed to call you?” she asked.

“Gwydion, god of enchantment, illusions, and magic,” Mark told her, grinning. “Though I’m surprised that was your first question.”

“Well I wanted to shout at you and ask what the fuck you’re doing out here, but I figured that would look unprofessional,” Morrigan shrugged. “But trust me, I will be shouting at you later.”

“Noted.”

She dropped the majority of the wall, saving several small balls of ice that she sent flying at the drug dealers. Gwydion jumped off his bike, smashing his helmet over the head of the first guy within range. Another man ran at him with a switch blade in hand. Gwydion moved to the side, wrapped his arm around the man’s outstretched arm and shoved his hand into the man’s elbow, snapping his arm. 

He heard Morrigan scream to get his attention, but he didn’t react fast enough. Someone hit his head with something and he went down. Disoriented, his vision spotty and blurry, he tried to get to his feet. He couldn’t tell what was going on. Shit, had he gotten in over his head?

“Gwydion!” Morrigan had thrown up another wall of ice so she could kneel beside her friend and rest a hand against his back. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

“Yeah I can hear you,” Gwydion’s vision was clearing up but the dizziness was still there. “God, I fucked up.” 

“You’re doing fine,” Morrigan insisted. “You’re not the first hero to be smacked in the back of the head by a pipe, I’m sure.”

‘Though I’m pretty sure Superman would have shrugged it off.’

“Superman can kiss my ass, he’s a cheater.”

“What?”

“What?” Gwydion looked up at his friend in confusion. “You said something about Superman.”

“Noooo I didn’t,” Morrigan said slowly. Then realization dawned on her face. “But I thought it.”

“What are you saying?”

“Gwydion, I think you might be telepathic.”

A crashing sound filled their ears and a crack appeared in the wall of ice.

“Let’s talk about this later,” Morrigan decided.

“Agreed.”

Morrigan slammed the wall into their assailants, knocking them prone. Gwydion quickly set about tying the men up as best he could. The men shouted and squirmed but a too-close-for-comfort thrown fireball from Morrigan convinced them to behave.

The duo were gone before the police arrived, a messaged written in spray paint left for them against the back wall of the shopping center.

‘You’re Welcome – Morrigan and Gwydion’

 

Morrigan held tightly on to Gwydion as he pulled into the garage and shut the door behind them. 

“So, how long has this been going on?” she asked as she slid off the bike. She’d never seen it before, which made her wonder how he’d been hiding it.

“Since the beginning,” Mark admitted. “When you left I would train. I wanted to join you out there. I wanted to be a hero too.”

“You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“But I didn’t.”

Kolby didn’t feel like arguing with him. Mark was her friend and this was important to him. He was an even bigger super hero geek than she was, so why wouldn’t he jump at the chance to emulate his role models. 

“Fine,” she conceded, “It’s not like I could stop you anyway.”

“Damn straight you couldn’t.”


End file.
